The forefront of a fairer society... the Islington Fairness Commission

As logos go, this isn't the most
thrilling - but the Commission is
worth reading about

Andy Hull

At the My Fair London launch that I wrote about here one of the speakers was Andy Hull who is the co-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission (IFC).

He spoke a bit about what the IFC has been doing, and it was so impressive that I'm dedicating a post to it.

It serves as an example to boroughs everywhere of what can be achieved, moving towards a more equal society where residents are healthier, better educated, in employment and less divided from one another.

The IFC was the first fairness commission, but now Blackpool, York, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield have all started their own up. If you live in a borough without one, why not write a letter/email to your council asking them if they know about the IFC and whether they might set one up themselves?

It was set up in June 2010, inspired by The Spirit Level book which explained how societies with more inequality are overall worse off that societies with less. On its board are a selection of councillors, academic experts and representatives from various sectors such as the NHS and the police.

Islington is a very mixed borough - it has wealthy areas, such as Upper Street which is full of delis and boutiques, and it also has areas of dire poverty and disengagement. Here are some stats about Islington that really hit home why something needed to be done. It has the:

• lowest male life expectancy in London

• 3rd highest crime rate in London

• 2nd highest rate of child poverty in the country

• unemployment among its black and minority ethnic residents is twice that of its white residents

Through a series of meetings using evidence from academics and residents, it reported to Islington Council and made practical recommendations on how to improve life for people living in Islington.

In October 2011, the Council started implementing the recommendations made by the Commission.

In that short amount of time, they have done or have set the ball rolling to do so much good stuff - stuff like moving 186 severely overcrowded households to larger properties, promoting volunteering or residents, helping find affordable childcare, negotiating with TfL to get the Bike Hire scheme extended to Islington, vigorously campaigning for Islington companies to be more socially responsible and trying to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen this piece of music video genius, then you need to.


Below I've given a little more detail on what they're doing about pay inequality, debt, employment, green spaces and crime, just to give you an idea of how they're going about it. You can read the full reports on the IFC's webpage at www.islington.gov.uk/fairness.

PAY

by David G Kline from www.nytimes.com

The IFC wants to reduce the pay ratio in Islington. I wrote about what pay ratio is on my earlier post here - it means making the gap between the top and the bottom earners smaller.

To do this in Islington they have:

• reduced the pay of the incoming Chief Executive by £50,000 in comparison to the pay of his predecessor
• brought in the London Living Wage for all Council staff - they're currently working on extending that to all contracted staff too
• they will be meeting with the 100 largest employers in Islington to encourage them to reduce their pay differentials if they are very high, and to publish their pay differentials on a council-run website

DEBT

I wrote a bit about the debt problem we have in the UK in this post. To help residents in debt, Islington is/has:

• helping people with multiple debts consolidate them into one payment so it is more manageable and less stressful
• established a Citizens Advice Bureau locally, giving out free debt advice
• sent mystery shoppers to payday loans companies to check they are operating legally - that is, not giving out loans to people with no ability to pay them back, and not aggressively targeting vulnerable customers.

EMPLOYMENT

We all know that unemployment is a massive problem in the UK right now. The economic downturn has put many people out of work and prevented many young people from getting into it. Islington has the amibitious and impressive target of having no young people who are not in education, employment or training by 2015 (commonly called NEETs). To kickstart this, Islington has:

• placed 119 residents into work and 40 into apprenticeships through its 'Single Employer Face'
• piloted a scheme offering 14 to 16 year olds paid local work experience
• started 'Business Works' - a mentoring, development and paid work experience scheme. It helps young people leaving care by pairing them up with a mentor for regular meetings. They help them with skills such as interview technique, confidence on public transport and much more

GREEN SPACES

From www.katiebacon.co.uk

Islington have recognised that in a built up city area, green spaces are very important. They create a public area where people can meet and cross the divides between demographics, they create opportunities for exercise, amongst many other benefits.

So, they have:

• given funding to local residents groups to maintain 5 sites that were previously maintained by a company contracted by the council - this means local people getting involved in their local area, an excellent plan brought 6 new spaces into public use for gardening and play

CRIME

we all know what crime looks like, so I
thought I'd give you a pretty picture of
some tulips instead, much nicer

Islington has a lot of crime and a lot of 'gang' issues. To help ease these, they have:

• set up a hotline for reporting anti-social behaviour
• been accepted by the Ministry of Justice as one of two pilot areas in London for trialling Neighbourhood Resolution panels which bring victims, perpertrators and criminal justice professionals together for restorative justice
• they have a couple of schemes under way or being created that help people under threat of gang violence or on the fringes of gangs away from those situations 

The really good thing about the IFC is that it's ACTUALLY GETTING STUFF DONE. It's not just another 'talking shop'.

This sort of grassroots, proactive approach is exactly what's needed. I hope it goes from strength to strength, and look forward to finding out more about the other UK fairness commissions too.

Like I said at the start, why not send a quick email to your borough and ask them about setting one up? The time is ripe.

youcanarguewithstupid

Sources/further reading:
www.islington.gov.uk/fairness for the IFC's reports
www.equalitytrust.org.uk for evidence on why equality matters
www.livingwage.org.uk for the Living Wage Foundation - there's also a wikipedia page that explains what it's about

Campaign Corner... My Fair London

This afternoon I went to the launch of My Fair London at the Old Vic Tunnels.

The campaign has been set up by the London Equality Group, described as an "autonomous collective of more than 200 Londoners loosely affiliated to the Equality Trust".

This group is setting out to reduce inequality in London. Their first big action is this awareness raising campaign - My Fair London - which wants each mayoral candidate to sign up to their manifesto by polling day (3rd May). So far, Ken Livingston (Labour), Jenny Jones (Green) and Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) have signed it... that just leaves mop-haired Boris.

Why not bash of a quick email to Boris and ask him to sign up? His email address is mayor@london.gov.uk.

There's another really easy action you can take...

They need you to sign their petition [find it here] - they have a target of 10,000 signatures by 3rd May. In a city of close to 8 million people, that shouldn't be too hard if we help spread the word.

What's wrong with inequality?

There is an absolute truckload of research out there proving that inequality in a society causes enormous problems - and not just for the poorest, but for the rich too. This became national news in 2009 when Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson published their book The Spirit Level. It contains a wealth of information on why inequality is bad for us all.
You can read more evidence in detail here at the Equality Trust and there are more links to other sources at the bottom of this post.

Essentially, it's been proven that life expectancy, health (both bodily and mental) and crime rate amongst other issues are worse in countries and cities with greater inequality.
The graph below shows you this according to countries. The more unequal the country, the worse the social problems are:

from the Equality Trust here

The Equality Trust also says this:

If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:

- Murder rates could halve
- Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
- Obesity could halve
- Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
- Teen births could reduce by 80%
- Levels of trust could increase by 85%

So that's the research behind this drive against inequality. Of course there is also a rather large moral argument, but people like a bit of empirical data in their morality stew these days.

You can view My Fair London's manifesto here - it's accessibly written and very clear. 

It asks the mayoral candidates to say that if they win, they will do a number of things to promote greater equality in London. The main area it focuses on is pay inequality. 

Pay inequality has been all over the place lately - see my previous post on the maximum wage idea here. There's also the London Living Wage campaign, which I'll do a post on soon.

Tackle pay inequality by...changing pay ratios

The key idea in this issue is pay ratio.

I like to think of pay ratio
as "Who ate all the pie?"

This isn't about levelling out pay until everyone earns the same amount. It's just about making the gap between the people earning the most and the people earning the least a bit smaller. That would reduce inequality across society.

The main figure bandied about as the ideal pay ratio is 10:1 - i.e. the top earners would not earn more than ten times what the bottom earners do. Other figures vary from 7:1 to 20:1.

The Green Party have been onto this
whole 10:1 business for a while

It's hard to estimate the pay ratios that we actually have at the moment because, unsurprisingly, most companies don't go around shouting about how much their CEOs earn.

The Commonsense Sniff-o-meter
on youcanarguewithstupid:
rotten haddock - eggy - pine fresh

But as an example, Barclays paid its Chief Executive £4,365,636 last year. Meanwhile, their Customer Advisors in the lowest pay bracket earn £12,665/year. This is a ratio of 344:1. That rates rotten haddock on my Commonsense Sniff-o-meter. [figures from here and here].

So My Fair London wants the mayor to tackle this by:

• Challenging all employers to publish the income gap between their lowest and highest earners.

• Challenging London’s wealthiest citizens to sign a petition asking parliament to increase their income tax as a sign of
of their commitment to make London more equal, like the Patriotic Millionaires [see here for this truly impressive campaign] in the USA.

• Reduce the pay ratio within the Greater London Authority (the administrative body for Greater London) from highest to lowest earners to 10:1.

• Require all employers used by the GLA to pay their workers the London Living Wage.

• Vigorously lobbying the government for more progressive taxation policies and for changes to business regulations to encourage fair pay ratios.

They also want the Mayor to establish a Fairness Commission for London to bring together all the evidence about inequality in London and use it to inform strategy.

There are several other components to the manifesto that you can see on the 4th page of this PDF.

What happened at the launch today?

Well, we all got free Oyster card wallets with the My Fair London logo on them, not to mention the free cupcakes decorated with the logo too!

The 4 panelists spoke on a range of issues relating to inequality. They were:

Kate Pickett with The Spirit Level
co-author Richard Wilkinson

Kate Pickett was co-author of the immensely influential 2009 book The Spirit Level, which everyone who's interested in society should read (so, everyone basically). She's also co-founder of the Equality Trust.

Michael Robinson, BBC journalist who presented the documentary The Wealth Gap.

Andy Hull, smiley guy

Andy Hull, this guy was amazing. He's on Islington Council and is vice-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission which is truly an example to hold up high for a fairer, happier society.

Dr Faiza Shaheen, from the New Economics Foundation [previous post on their big idea for a shorter work week here].

Alex Bax of the London Equality Group managed the show and gave a galvanising introduction to the themes of the campaign. As is often the case with panel events, there was rather a lot of waffle, so I'm culling all that to give you some basic points in a nutshell.

Kate Pickett said that: 

• Inequality in most areas has increased since 2009
• There is a growing awareness of the need for better social cohesion (Cameron's Big Society) and yet it seems to be a lot of talk and less action
• We no longer think greed is good - the anti-bonus backlash
• "Our current economic model isn't working. Our current ideology has failed us. Austerity might be needed, but austerity for whom?"

• We need redistribution and rebalancing
• Those at the top that would pay more tax etc may think that they would be disadvantaged, but actually they would benefit - The Spirit Level showed that in more equal societies, everyone - rich and poorer - benefits in myriad ways

Adam Hull spoke about what the Islington Fairness Commission has been up to since it was established in June 2010. It is a truly impressive body. I'm going to give it its own post, rather than make this one overlong, but suffice to say if you read the manifesto of my Fair London and think, gee whizz, that's never going to happen, the Islington Fairness Commission is showing that changes really can be made.

All in all, My Fair London is a great campaign which will serve to highlight the endemic inequality we have across London in every area (geographical and social). If it gets enough support (and signatures, don't forget to sign it here), it will hopefully mean that whoever our next mayor is, he/she can't afford to ignore the public wish for change and a more equal London in the future.

youcanarguewithstupid

Sources/further reading:

The High Pay Commission which led an independent inquiry into pay in the private sector

"Does income inequality cause health and social problems?" - a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

London's Poverty Profile - independent source of information about poverty and inequality in London

New Economics Foundation report on pay ratios here

"Britain's Livelihood Crisis" - a pamphlet by Steward Lansley for the TUC on how rising prosperity has not trickled down to those workers at the bottom

A selection of articles written by Kate Pickett for the Guardian here

The Equality Trust - set up in response to the Spirit Level