#LucyInLockdown with Economic Sociologist Dr Niamh Mulcahy

Wed 15 July 2020

Lucy Cavendish College

An investment into the community: Local authorities and the financialisation of welfare provision

British households have been under financial pressure since the 2008 crisis and the resulting austerity measures implemented by the UK Government in 2010. An increasing cost of living, alongside declining real wages, has left many struggling to make ends meet or in need of debt to make up the difference, at a time when government benefits have been restructured to decrease public spending. Problem debt, homelessness, and foodbank use are on the rise, as quality of life drops even for those with full-time work or multiple jobs.
This talk explores the pressure these problems place on welfare provision at the local level, in order to understand the changing face of regional assistance related to debt and financial precariousness. Local authorities offer advice or assistance to struggling households, having been charged by central government with a duty to help prevent homelessness. They also provide services meant to help with contingency or financial difficulty as part of their mandate. But with no additional funding from central government to cover assistance or much needed social housing projects, local authorities are starting to conceive of their role in welfare provision as one of investment, using new financial capabilities endowed by the Localism Act to generate their own sources of income through the establishment of joint venture and wholly owned companies. By using these entities to build needed housing and provide services, local authorities weigh the risks of problem debt and household ruin against the economic stability or growth that could result from an investment into community infrastructure. The upshot is that welfare provision is considered not simply as an inherent social good, but a return on a public investment.

Cost: Free but please register to receive Zoom joining details