Archive for: Political Services

The links between the coronavirus crisis and the energy industry might not seem immediately obvious and, at first glance, MPs might be forgiven for thinking they have more important concerns when they return to Westminster next week. However, it is clear that the economic damage being done to the country by the pandemic poses real opportunities for the energy sector, and for tackling climate change. As activists argue, this crisis really does pose an opportunity to deliver a ‘green recovery’ and to ‘build back better’.  

We saw the first signs of this being delivered in Rishi Sunak’s Summer Statement and ‘Plan for Jobs’, which included £3bn for a range of energy efficiency measures, including the Green Homes Grant. However, while welcomed by campaigners and businesses, these are all short-term programmes, rather than the long-term strategic investments and plans which it is generally agreed are needed. The industry will therefore be keeping its ear to the ground ahead of the Budget promised for later this year, which should hopefully put some flesh on the bones of the Government’s target of reaching net zero by 2050. 

In terms of specific actions, there are a number of policies and strategies whose publication would help to give businesses and investors the confidence in the UK’s future direction which they need to unlock private sector activity and funding; many of which have been long-promised and much-delayed. These include the National Infrastructure Strategy, Energy White Paper, Low Carbon Heat Strategy and the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Alok Sharma has indicated that we can expect at least some of these to emerge later this year. The process of agreeing these documents will, however, involve making choices, and this will inevitably mean that there are both winners and losers. 

At the moment many technologies – some established, some new – are vying for Government attention and spending. Consider, for example, the issues of new nuclear, hydrogen or wave energy, or the challenges associated with decarbonising heating, transport and energy-intensive industries. It’s clear that ministers do not have easy decisions to make – but make them they must. They could make the UK a successful pioneer, able to export newly developed technologies, skills and expertise around the globe; alternatively, they could back the wrong horse and find the country landed with costly, ineffective technology while other nations overtake it. For all the focus on creating new, green jobs, there also needs to be consideration of how best to reuse the undoubted skills and knowledge of those employed in older industries, such as oil and gas, and how to support the areas which have prospered on the back of these to ensure a just transition. 

All this doesn’t even consider the end consumer either. Shifting away from fossil fuel technologies will cost money, at least in the short-term. With many people feeling the impact of the COVID-19 induced downturn in their wallet, the Government will be under pressure to shield people not just from the medical impact of the virus, but from suffering a financial hit, and to prevent a rise in unemployment, leading to a rise in fuel poverty.  

It isn’t just the Government the energy and utilities sector should be keeping an eye on either. While the threat of imminent nationalisation disappeared along with Labour’s hopes at the 2019 general election, the policy is undoubtably popular among the party’s grassroots membership. The appointment by Sir Keir Starmer of former leader Ed Miliband to the post of Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary shows the importance which the party places on the sector. Miliband is no stranger to the energy industry – he was Energy and Climate Change Secretary in the last Labour government and has maintained an interest ever since. As he settles into the role and focus returns to the longer-term, expect Miliband to be pushing the Government to be more ambitious. 

It may also be worth monitoring the Liberal Democrats – Sir Ed Davey, their acting leader and the bookies’ favoured candidate to win the leadership election (which ends today), also held the Energy and Climate Change portfolio during the Coalition government and has focused heavily on the area. It’s clear that the Government faces a heavyweight opposition which is well-equipped to spot failings and to set out an alternative vision. 

It’s clear that energy is an area where the Government will face some tough choices in the next few months, yet alone years. 

In this series, we’re exploring how different sectors may be impacted by autumn policy announcements and how you can prepare for a period without physical party conferences.

When MPs and peers return to Westminster next month, one of the most prominent issues they’ll face is the environment, with the Government echoing the rhetoric of campaigners who have been calling for a ‘green recovery’ and for the UK to ‘build back better’ from the coronavirus crisis. They will also have to vote on the three key bills to create a post-Brexit environmental framework, consider the implications of new trade deals, and prepare for the UN climate change conference COP26, which the UK will be hosting next year.

Building back better
Announcing a £350m decarbonisation package at the end of July, Boris Johnson said ‘our green ambitions remain sky high as we build back better for both our people and our planet’. This aspiration was also set out in Rishi Sunak’s summer economic statement as part of the Government’s ‘Plan for Jobs’. He said that the Government wanted ‘a green recovery with concern for our environment at its heart’ and announced a £3bn plan to create green jobs, including the Green Homes Grant to improve domestic energy efficiency. This, of course, is in addition the Government’s need to explain how it will meet the target set under Theresa May of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

As environmental campaigners have repeatedly pointed out, delivering a green recovery and attaining net zero requires more than just warm words, targets and isolated programmes, welcome though these are. For this reason, all eyes will be on the Budget Sunak is expected to deliver in the autumn. In order to drive private sector investment, the Government will need to give a clear steer on its direction of travel and give investors confidence that the UK is on a secure, long-term pathway to net zero, covering all of its activity.

It has a variety of tools at its disposal to achieve this. For example, the long-promised National Infrastructure Strategy, Energy White Paper and Low Carbon Heat Strategy are all now expected to be published in the autumn, alongside the Comprehensive Spending Review and an interim report from the Net Zero Review. Together, these could create a framework for a greener, more environmentally friendly post-Covid future. However, environmentalists will be concerned that the Government’s ‘build, build, build’ mantra could result in incoherent policy, with Johnson claiming in a speech that ‘newt-counting’ was delaying house-building, even as he asserted that the UK would ‘build back greener’.

Taking back (environmental) control
As we get closer to Parliament sitting again and to the end of the Brexit transition, those of us who focus on the environment will be on the lookout for details of the return of the three key bills which will define our post-Brexit environmental framework: the Environment Bill, the Agriculture Bill, and the Fisheries Bill. So far, the only one of these to appear on the parliamentary calendar is the Fisheries Bill, which will have its second reading on the first day that the Commons returns – 1 September.

Even as the bills progress through Parliament, there is plenty to be done to ensure that they can actually be implemented and many details that need to be fleshed out. For example, the Environment Bill will create a new environmental regulator, the Office for Environmental Protection and recruitment for its chair started earlier this month. Another example is the Environmental Land Management scheme being created through the Agriculture Bill, with more details on this promised by the autumn. The Environment Bill also contains a range of measures targeted at reducing waste and boosting recycling, including a deposit return scheme, extended producer responsibility for packaging, and consistency in waste and recycling collections. These all await further consultation to agree their details before they can be implemented.

Appearing before the Environmental Audit Committee in June, George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told MPs that his priority ‘across all fronts, whether it is agriculture, fishing or our environment, is to demonstrate that we can chart a different course and do things better than the European Union’. The next few months will give us a good indication of how the Government’s actions match this rhetoric.

Trade deal or no deal?
The environment – and agriculture in particular – has taken a prominent role in discussion of the UK’s post-Brexit trading future. Concerns about the implications of a trade deal with the USA for the country’s food, environmental and animal welfare standards have proven to be a flashpoint, even within the ranks of the Conservative Party.

An amendment to the Agriculture Bill seeking to ensure that the UK wouldn’t agree trade agreements allowing the import into the UK of food which didn’t at least meet the UK’s standards was tabled by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Chair Neil Parish, a Conservative MP. This was rejected, but in light of the concerns the Government launched a Trade and Agriculture Commission in July to advise on its policy on this topic, with a report expected after six months. With suggestions that time is running out for a deal to be agreed before the American presidential election in the autumn, this is a key area to keep an eye on.

The proposed trade deal between the UK and Japan also seems to have run into agriculture-related problems, with International Trade Secretary Liz Truss reportedly holding out for better terms on British blue cheeses, such as Stilton. Perhaps more seriously, European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier said last month that the UK’s position on fisheries in negotiations on the post-Brexit relationship with the bloc was ‘simply unacceptable’ and ‘makes a trade agreement at this point unlikely’. All these are issues which will continue to develop in the autumn, and in years to come, as the UK tries to establish its position now it has left the EU.

Delivering global change
It’s important to remember that climate change is ultimately a global concern which needs coordinated international action – no matter how good the UK’s policies might be, the planet’s current trajectory cannot be altered unilaterally. One of the events which fell foul of COVID-19 was COP26, the UN’s climate change conference, which was due to be hosted in Glasgow this year. The event has now been postponed to 2021, and environmental organisations will be keeping a beady eye on what Alok Sharma, who is both COP26 President and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, has been doing to ensure that the conference is regarded as a success in challenging the climate crisis, rather than a missed opportunity.

A crucial moment
One of the few upsides of the current pandemic is that it allows for some thought about things we might want to change as we start the process of recovery, while Brexit allows a similar opportunity for thinking about future environmental, agricultural, fisheries and trade policy. However, there are also significant risks involved – will the Government’s planning reforms negate the ‘green recovery’? Will the UK’s new environmental framework deliver the improvements the Government claims? The next few months will give us some clarity on the UK’s future trajectory.

In this series, we’re exploring how different sectors may be impacted by autumn policy announcements and how you can prepare for a period without physical party conferences.

The education and skills sector will be a critical one this Autumn, as it will be central to the recovery from COVID-19, and particularly important as the furlough scheme draws to a close in October. This ties into Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s announcement of an overhaul in further education in July as part of the Government’s levelling up agenda. Hopefully, we will see further details of this ‘fundamental change’ with the publication of a White Paper in further education, as well as the implementation of Government measures to counteract the impact of the employment crisis on young people.

Opportunity Guarantee
As part of the Government’s ‘build back better’ plan for recovery from Covid-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised an Opportunity Guarantee to help young people get into work, stating in June that every young person will be given the chance of an apprenticeship or work placement. This was first mentioned by Education Committee Chair Robert Halfon and further supported by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his Summer statement, announcing a bonus of £2,000 for firms who hire a new young apprentice aged 16-24 and £1,500 for apprentices over 25. It is unclear how successful this will be, as apprentices were made redundant amidst the wider employment crisis caused by the pandemic. Furthermore, some stakeholders have said the bonus will be wasted on larger employers who would be hiring apprenticeships anyway. Nevertheless the promise has gained traction, with many calling for the Government to publicly commit to the promise, given numerous reports that the economic consequences of the pandemic will fall heavily on young people.

T-Levels
The Government is planning to launch T-levels this autumn, despite requests to postpone the launch due to coronavirus concerns. These 2 year-courses, equivalent to 3 A levels, will be a mix of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience from Industry Placements, and have been introduced. The first 3 T levels will be available from September 2020 in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction, Digital Production, Design and Development, Education and Childcare, with a further 7 courses set to be introduced in 2021.

This is a major part of the Government’s plans to improve technical education in the UK and the courses are supposed to differentiate from apprenticeships, which are more heavily geared around on-the-job experience and designed for people who want to enter the workforce at 16. As opposed to a direct route to work, T levels are described by the Government as an alternative to A levels and a pathway to further study. However, the roll out is controversial as in March the awarding bodies for the first three T levels asked the Government to delay their plans, on the basis that colleges would likely be in ‘crisis and recovery mode’ until the Autumn term. However the Government has decided to go ahead with the initial launch date, with Skills Minister Gillian Keegan writing to providers in April about how important it is that students do not lose out on opportunities due to COVID-19.

Further Education White paper
In a speech hosted by the Social Market Foundation, Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson announced the publication of a White Paper this autumn which will set out ‘long-term change’ for further education. This will be an important step in supporting the Government’s ambitions to level up the country, and address skills shortages in certain sectors which may be impacted by Brexit later in the year.

Reform in this area will also be tightly linked to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as many will need to reskill. Although speculative, it is thought the document will focus on four ‘pillars’ of funding, qualifications, workforce and careers, as well as a mechanism for bringing failing colleges under state control and giving Ofqual powers to make funding decisions about different qualifications.

Schools Reopening
Over the summer the Government have been clear that Schools and Colleges will reopen fully in September, despite controversy over the safety of doing so. Plans for returning safely include staggered start times and grouping whole year groups into bubbles, with teachers moving between different groups to facilitate teaching the full curriculum. Teachers unions have expressed continuing fears over the safety of reopening, as they say Government plans rely on lower-levels of COVID-19 in the community and a fully functioning test and trace contact system. They have also called for the Government to have a ‘Plan B’, in case these qualifiers have not been reached. However, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has stated that teaching unions cannot be allowed to ‘dictate’ when children go back to school and urged cooperation and support from the unions to get children to help the ‘national recovery’. There have also been suggestions that further restrictions in other areas of the community may be necessary to allow this to happen.

Another issue is that in a deal with Government to secure a bailout package, TfL agreed to suspend free transport for under-18s from September onwards. Undoubtedly this will impact low-incomes families and young people’s access to education and campaigners, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, have called on the Government to reconsider these changes. Following Marcus Rashford’s successful campaign on free school meals support for disadvantaged children, it is possible that there will be some change here, but undoubtedly will be a talking point when schools return in September.

In this series, we’re exploring how different sectors may be impacted by autumn policy announcements and how you can prepare for a period without physical party conferences.

The Higher Education sector has been severely impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic and this disruption is likely to continue into the Autumn. Universities this year face competition for domestic students because of the drop in international student numbers, as well as pressure to deliver attractive-looking courses under ‘new normal’ social distancing restrictions.

In Research and Development, funding will also be crucial as the Universities bail-out tapped into £100m of future R&D funding, which is even more concerning as we approach the end of the transition period in December 2020, having left the European Union. The Government has committed to working with Universities as part of developing the UK’s research and innovation output and announced a move away from the target of getting 50% of young people into University this year, so it will be interesting to see how these objectives play out in parallel.

A new version of the University experience
Universities will return in the Autumn with a very different looking version of the ‘University Experience’. Although they have been given guidance by the Government, during a recent Education Committee session University Minister Michelle Donelan was careful to stress that Universities are autonomous institutions and will need to carry out their own risk assessments to ensure the safety of students. This will severely impact how freshers’ week and the social elements of University life is carried out, as well as the everyday logistics of thousands of students, small campuses, and other learning facilities. Despite fears over student numbers dwindling because of the restrictions, a record 40.5% of all 19-year olds in the UK applied to go to University this year, with the numbers actually increasing during lockdown.

Further, to add to financial pressure caused by a drop in international student numbers, groups like NUS have been campaigning for an option of reimbursement for the last academic year. Students have been told they can complain to the Ombudsman if they haven’t received adequate tutoring in line with other years, so there is pressure to deliver on COVID-safe courses.

It will be interesting to see how different Universities navigate this, with some famously suspending all lectures until 2021. There have also been warnings that risk assessments should include mental health considerations, as students face being away from their families for the first time, combined with restrictions around social support.

Augar Review Response
The Government commissioned Augar Review into post-18 education was published in May 2019, and made sweeping recommendations for further and higher education, including cutting tuition fees and setting up lifelong learning allowances for degree or further education programmes. Although the Government has delayed its response and any policy changes, a press release outlining changes to higher technical education in July mentioned the upcoming measures announced would complement the review.

The Government has announced commitments to improve the further education sector and but haven’t so far commented on any other higher education reforms, so it will be interesting to see if it includes this sector, and if so, what the response will be.

Grades Scandal
Due to the pandemic, A level examinations were cancelled this year and replaced by a combination of teacher predictions and a class, school and subject standardisation process. Exams regulator Ofqual confirmed the appeals process earlier this year; with concerns being expressed early on by the Education Committee and stakeholders around the suppression of grades, potential for bias, and adequate support for disadvantaged students in the appeals process.

The Scottish Exam Board SQA recently came under fire for suppressing the grades of thousands students when external markers downgraded teachers’ predictions. Statistics have suggested this disproportionality impacted pupils at schools in disadvantaged areas, and in response First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised and agreed to accept teachers assessments.

Despite this foresight, A level results day in England has been similarly disruptive, with just under 40% of A levels being downgraded from teacher’s assessments on Thursday 13 August and thousands of young people missing out on University places. The Government has said grades remained broadly stable with a 2.5% increase in As and A*s, however because of the standardisation used, students from disadvantaged areas were worst hit whilst private schools saw an increase in the proportion of students achieving top grades.

The Government have so far announced a taskforce of Ministers and exam regulators Ofqual to tackle this issue, and have offered free appeals for students this year, echoing Sturgeon’s actions a few weeks ago, however we can expect to see further movement on this extremely important issue. Similarly to Scotland, there have been calls for Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to resign over the mishandling of this issue from the Liberal Democrats, with Labour asking for the results system to be scrapped.

The Government has celebrated more disadvantaged students going University this year than ever before, but it remains to be seen how the disproportionate impact of standardisation effects social mobility and access to University.

Research and Development Spending
The Government has been focussed on Research and Development spending as a means to turn post-Brexit Britain into a ‘science-superpower’. As such, the Conservative Manifesto committed to increasing R&D spending by 2.4%, with an increase in public investment to £22bn a year by 2024-5 announced in the Budget in March 2020. You can expect this conversation to be ramped up in the lead up to the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, but also as part of the recovery from COVID-19, mentioned by the Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the UK Research and Development Roadmap published in July.

The Roadmap defines dynamic innovation and research as part of an interconnected system across government, academia and universities, and states the Government is ‘not afraid to make tough choices’ in ensuring this system is fit for purpose. It’s possible these changes will start to be made this year, given the Government’s apparent focus on this area of the sector.

Today sees the publication of Part One of the National Food Strategy, written by Henry Dimbleby [pictured], son of broadcaster David Dimbleby, but, more relevantly, founder of the restaurant chain LEON. The report was commissioned by Michael Gove during his tenure as Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, but its scope goes well beyond that department’s powers.

Today’s instalment focuses on two highly topical issues – food poverty, which has gained a new salience in light of the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 crisis, and food standards in new trade deals, already the subject of great political dispute.

Indeed, these pressing circumstances have changed the report’s schedule. Part One had originally been envisioned as a diagnostic document, with proposals for reform of the UK food system to follow next year; instead it now makes a series of urgent recommendations, though a full strategy is still scheduled for 2021. The rapidly changing circumstances have also led to revisions to the report right up to its publication – recommendations on advertising of unhealthy food were excised after the Government unilaterally announced them on Monday as part of its obesity strategy.

The report therefore fits nicely into the wider discussion about ensuring that the UK builds back better after the pandemic. As it identifies, ‘in the age of COVID-19, a poor diet is almost as great a threat to life as cancer or old age’. Dimbleby explores a wide range of aspects that have led to poor diets: ‘individual’, in which he splits the population into six groups with shared characteristics; ‘social’, noting that the UK doesn’t put as high a social value on food as other European countries; and ‘material’, claiming that the free market is ‘the single most important force that shapes our food environment’ and outlining the factors that drive companies to produce and market unhealthy food, using Marks and Spencer’s Percy Pigs as an example.

The complexities of the food system are well demonstrated by even the limited number of recommendations that Dimbleby makes at this stage, crossing a number of different policy areas.

Reflecting on the need for an increased ‘nutritional safety net’ for children given the impact of COVID-19 on employment, he calls for the expansion of Free School Meals provision and the Holiday Activity and Food programme (both Department for Education schemes), increased value and eligibility of Healthy Start vouchers (a Department for Health and Social Care measure), and an extension to the work of the Food to the Vulnerable Ministerial Task Force (which is led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but also involved the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions).

Turning to Brexit, his recommendations cross the responsibilities of both DEFRA and the Department for International Trade. He rejects the ‘globalist model’ of trade, insisting that the UK should have ‘lines we will not cross’ and that ‘standards are not the same as protectionism’. Under his approach, the Trade and Agriculture Commission would set core standards on animal welfare, the environment and climate, and the Government would only agree to cut tariffs on products that meet these, with verification programmes to prove that foreign producers are doing so. There would also be improved scrutiny of trade deals, with statutory duties to commission independent reports and to give Parliament enough time to examine proposed agreements. He also calls on the Government to ‘be bolder’ and ‘go faster’ with its new Environmental Land Management scheme.

The challenge for Dimbleby now will be to put together a comprehensive set of recommendations, drawing together all these different policy streams to create an all-embracing vision for the future of the British food system. But the real challenge isn’t Dimbleby’s at all – it’s the Government’s, both in choosing how to respond to his initial recommendations, but also in ensuring that his final report is acted on, and the UK builds the ‘healthier world’ he calls for.

Need policy monitoring or political support? Find out how Vuelio can help. 

Join three experts in the UK public affairs sector to discuss how the sector is reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic and what should be done to maintain policy engagement.

It has been confirmed by the First Secretary of State Dominic Raab that the UK lockdown restrictions will continue for at least another three weeks, and many will now be well-adjusted to remote working, not least in the public affairs sector.

Parliament, for example, has adapted to allow virtual questioning of Ministers for the first time in its 700-year history using Zoom once it returns from recess on 21 April.

The House of Commons Commission chaired by the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has announced that following the delivery of ‘hybrid proceedings’ for questioning Ministers and for PMQs led by Dominic Raab in the Prime Minister’s absence, the House will then consider extending this model for debates, motions and legislation as soon as possible.

MPs are also able to consider new temporary arrangements for remote voting. Many select Committees have already held virtual committee meetings thanks to platforms like Zoom and this is set to increase in number when the House of Commons returns.

As the First Secretary of State set five clear conditions that must be met before the Government, led by its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) Committee, will consider relaxing any of the measures brought in to reduce the spread of COVID-19, this situation is clearly set to continue into May and perhaps even longer. Raab said in terms of relaxing the strict health and economic restrictions: ‘We will only do it when the evidence demonstrates that it is safe to do it’.

MPs are finding that their workload in terms of constituency casework and enquiries has increased significantly. One senior MP advised Vuelio that they are seeing an increase in cases of people ‘trying to access the various business support schemes’ as well as those stuck overseas and trying to return to the UK, or people trying to access benefits through the DWP and needing assistance. MPs are also seeing traditional lobbying continue as well, with various advice and suggestions on how to deal with the pandemic being sent to Ministers and backbenchers daily.

With this ongoing challenge for the public affairs sector in mind, Vuelio is hosting a webinar to discuss some of the key issues for our sector including:

• How to keep your political audiences engaged during lockdown
• How COVID-19 could impact policymaking for the long term
• The implications for your organisational strategy
• Tactics for updating your stakeholder map
• The opportunities that exist for you to maximise engagement

The webinar guests are Robin Gordon-Farleigh, a former Downing Street communications strategist and adviser to two former Prime Ministers, Nicole Wilkins, Publisher of Foresight News and Rob Dale, PRCA Consultant of the Year 2019.

Sign up to attend the webinar or, if you can’t join us live, to receive the recording afterwards.

The Head of Media at the Charities Aid Foundation, Caroline Mallan, welcomes the additional Government support for charities announced last week by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

At the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), we were very pleased to see the Chancellor’s package of assistance for charities announced just before the Easter break – it was a welcome first step for so many charities facing uncertain futures. Moreover, Mr Sunak’s recognition in his remarks of the value of civil society – the charities, non-profits and advocacy organisations that speak for those who so often have no voice – set a gracious tone for those of us working to ensure that the charities that we rely on in our day to day lives are going to be there for the months and years to come.

We need them to survive not just because of the invaluable support they are providing on the frontlines of the battle against coronavirus, but also because when the day finally arrives when we emerge from this crisis, their mission will not have diminished.

At CAF, we have created an emergency fund for small charities, offering grants of up to £10,000 to help them survive the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. It is very telling that the fund had to pause accepting new applications after just one week when more than 5,000 organisations applied for help. Their requests totalled more than £37m, even though the initial fund was created with just £5m – a sum that we are hoping to grow thanks to the generosity of CAF’s many donors.

The statistic that has always struck me out of our extensive research into charitable giving is one from a couple of years back, that found that three-quarters of all households in the UK had used a charity in some way in recent months, but three in 10 people did not even realise that they had done so. It is just one number, but for me it speaks to the inherent role that charities play in our lives.

If you have cycled on a canal tow path, you have used a charity. If you have visited a historic palace, you have used a charity. If you have attended a small theatre production, you have used a charity. If a loved one is ill and needs to go into hospice, you will be using a charity. If a loved one suffers from dementia and spends time in a day centre – vital to offering respite to primary care givers living with people with complex and emotionally taxing health issues – then chances are that service was provided by a charity.

Charities are everywhere, they clothe the poor, feed the needy and care for the vulnerable – both people and animals. They are the guardians of our natural world and for many, they are the only connection to the world outside their own homes.

Our work at CAF is to champion charities. I can honestly say that we have never been busier or more focused on the job we have ahead of us. Many of our private clients took hours, not days or weeks, to get in touch to ask us how they could help. Our charity clients have been candid and forthcoming in helping us tell the story of the need that exists out there. The businesses we work with have never been more engaged as they strive to help in any way they can. It is heartening during some difficult times to see the depth of generosity that exists and gratifying to be able to play a small part in telling their stories and helping charities to navigate these unprecedented, choppy waters.

Caroline Mallan is the Head of Media at the Charities Aid Foundation.

The think tank Policy Exchange hosted a webinar this week bringing together some of the players who responded to the last global crisis: the banking crisis of 2008-9.

Policy Exchange hosted a webinar to discuss the economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, chaired by its Senior Fellow Juliet Samuel. It brought together three of the key players who led the UK response to the 2008 economic crisis: Lord Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord King, the former Governor of the Bank of England and Lord Macpherson, former Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury. They were joined by Dr Gerard Lyons, newly appointed Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and a former adviser to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London.

Juliet Samuel opened the discussion on 1 April by warning that economic predictions by Deutsche Bank that this global crisis could well be the third largest economic reduction in the last 100 years, with a 6.5% drop in GDP, compared to only a 4.2% drop in 2008-9. She said this could well put the economy into recession if not a depression and said the fiscal backdrop was likely to be very different once the immediate crisis had passed. Samuel asked if taxes would have to sharply increase as they did after the Second World War?

Dr Gerard Lyons said the Government response to this pandemic needed to be ‘unconventional, unlimited and urgent’. Where the 2008-9 crisis was largely a western financial crisis, this pandemic is obviously global and does not respect national frontiers. In 2008-9 the solution was financial first then macroeconomic, with this COVID-19 crisis, the initial solution was a health one and a macroeconomic solution would follow when Governments would need to look to boost the global economy again. He observed that the action in 2008-9 was global, with this crisis many countries are more ‘on their own’ in terms of their varied responses and he added the G20 forum that met virtually at the beginning of the crisis had been ‘left wanting’ in its response.

Dr Lyons said the consensus was a possible economic recovery in the fourth quarter of 2020 and added while there was ‘no ideal policy response’ he did think there was agreement on the scale of the problem.

He added the Government accepted the collapse in demand and income and was seeking to minimize and offset that lost income and to ‘provide liquidity and ensure financial stability’ to make sure the hit to the economy was temporary and not permanent.

While initially the Chancellor said his measures would be ‘timely targeted and temporary’, Gerard Lyons said it was now clear the Treasury’s actions were ‘coherent, coordinated and comprehensive’.

He accepted, as many politicians and commentators have been saying, that more still needs to be done to assist the self-employed, adding that delay to them receiving any financial help until June was ‘problematic’ and said it was likely that more resources had to go into Universal Credit to assist the increase in applicants.

Dr Lyons said it wouldn’t be advisable to ‘burden the corporate sector with more debt’ so suggested that more grants should be offered in place of loans. Big companies were still not paying suppliers quickly enough, which is a traditional problem for small firms and even more serious now. He said it was important for Government to ensure as many companies as possible survived this shock and came out on the other side of the crisis. He also dispelled the myth about a magic money tree and said the Government was perfectly able to manage its debt through the debt management office.

Former Bank of England Governor Lord King said there were lessons to be learned from the banking crisis of 2008. He gave the example that banking system then was running right up against the margins and didn’t have sufficient capital to absorb losses or the ability to raise liquid assets; we now see the NHS will need additional capacity to be ready to cope with this pandemic. He urged all concerned to ‘avoid bogus predictions’ especially given it was very difficult to know how long the lockdown measures were likely to be needed.

Lord King added there needed to be ‘collective insurance’ from the Government to all affected and that nobody should blame the private sector for this when it is a Government decision to ‘lockdown the economy’ and ‘push down on economic activity’.

As a result of this, Lord King said the Government had to ensure cash flow to all businesses ‘large and small and the self-employed’ and agreed with other panelists that it was ‘not good enough’ to make the self-employed wait until June without any tangible support. He was also concerned about the ‘mechanism of delivery’ for this Government support if most bank branches were closed and unable to support businesses. Banks either by phone or in person had to be open to ensure the Government-backed emergency loans that were available in principle were ‘available in practice’.

Lord King concluded that the Government needed to find an ‘exit strategy’ to avoid a ‘rebellion against the lockdown’ the longer it is sustained, and added that as a result of this crisis the Government needed to support the NHS to ensure it was better able to ramp up the number of intensive care beds and for the NHS as a whole to be more robust and resilient.

Former Treasury Permanent Secretary Lord Macpherson said overall the Government and the Chancellor had ‘done a good job so far’ in this crisis but it was clear that more was required.

He noted that the social security system was likely to be put under more strain to help the ‘poorest in society’.

He echoed other panelists in pressing for a credible exit strategy and said the key questions was ‘How do we pay for this crisis and how do we come through it stronger?’.

Speaking as a former Treasury civil servant, he said it was critical to strike the right balance between ‘taxation, borrowing and printing money’ and suggested that the time might now be right for Government to consider a health tax to cover the cost of demographic pressures on the NHS and funding additional capacity.

Former Chancellor Lord Darling said the COVID-19 pandemic is different from the banking crisis of 2008 as there is no way of seeing the scale of the problem or knowing how long it will last.

He was clear that the Government message on testing up to this point had not been clear but said only a huge roll out of testing would ensure the NHS could get back on to the front foot in tackling the virus and this would also establish who has the virus and who has had it and is likely to be immune.

He said the delivery of the measures announced for the self-employed would take longer to deliver than many people have got, and this was not helped because people were finding it difficult to get access to the banks or information they required. Reflecting on his own time in Government in the Blair and Brown Governments, he suggested a temporary VAT reduction could be one solution to boost the economy and added national governments needed to ‘work as never before together if we are going to get through this’.

When questioned about the impact the crisis would have on national transport infrastructure projects like HS2, Lord Darling, as a former Transport Secretary, said Government should focus on delivering small ‘shovel-ready projects’ rather than huge and costly projects likely to take many years to come into use, like HS2.