GRJ0030
Written evidence submitted by Lord John Bird, founder of The Big Issue
I, Lord John Bird, am submitting evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into how green jobs can help tackle the expected rise in unemployment due to COVID-19 in a sustainable way.
I believe I can contribute a unique perspective due to my in-depth understanding of poverty (both through growing up in it and through working closely with many vulnerable groups whilst founding The Big Issue) and most importantly, due to my recent campaigning for policy making to have a longer-term outlook. Ultimately, I believe it is a Government’s job to have a vision for what the next 100 years should entail to guarantee the prosperity of the nation, and to carefully implement policies aligned with this.
During the last 30 - 50 years, it has become abundantly clear that this prosperity must be achieved in a sustainable manner, as the dangerous consequences of us progressing without these considerations have become increasingly evident: to mention but a few, it has led to mass extinction of biodiversity (limiting our ability to make medicinal and agricultural discoveries), created waves of pollution which negatively impacts our health and is making mass migration evermore likely as climate change makes lands uninhabitable.
Due to the severe recession we find ourselves in, the Government has a unique responsibility to inject our economy with stimulus. It is well established that fiscal recovery can and should help to address the broader long-term challenges facing a nation and accelerate the positive transitions already underway. Therefore, echoing the recent cries of many politicians, I believe that the way we get out of this deep recession, the worst in modern history, is through a green recovery.
The following report will lay out points I believe are necessary for consideration on our journey to get there.
The relevant work I am doing in this area has predominantly been via launching The Big Issue’s Ride Out Recession Alliance (RORA); it aims to develop and implement practical solutions to prevent families losing their homes and ensure people are in long-term employment fit for the future, achieved through retraining and (green) job creation. We have gained the support of politicians of all colours, businesses, local authorities, civil society and individuals. We’ve been holding roundtable events with our active partners, coming up with solutions to be implemented within the alliance and potentially by Government (conveyed via several meetings with Ministers). The idea is to converge the energies of our 200+ partners and encourage collaboration to prevent Covid-related mass unemployment.
Most recently, The Big Issue have teamed up with Sharebike to create an eBike venture. Aiming to launch our first fleet in the UK in early 2021 (and expand to up to 15 fleets over the next 24 months), we plan on recruiting and retraining people who were previously unemployed and support them back into work to run the schemes.
eBike employees will be paid a living wage and supported with access to services (such as the bikes themselves) to improve their lives. Alongside, the scheme aims to improve the environmental credentials of many towns and cities across the UK, encouraging people to cycle, rather than drive. We’re also calling on other businesses and councils interested in the initiative to set up an eBike scheme in their local community too.
Furthermore, on Monday the 18th of January, The Big Issue are launching their RORA Jobs and Training Service for those facing unemployment in the wake of Covid-19. Those who sign up to our RORA Toolkit will receive a free three-month digital subscription to The Big Issue magazine and will be given access to free and discounted training courses (inc. a 20% discount off selected courses on Future Learn, the online learning platform with courses from world-class university professors and industry experts).
On the job board itself, people will be able to search through hundreds of thousands of jobs for the right role and access tips and advice on how to land their next job, using our helpline. For every job that is filled or every training course that is completed, 10% of net proceeds will be reinvested to help more people find work in this time of crisis. One takeaway from this venture has been that although we have had many parties involved, dedicated to the mission of helping the unemployed to retrain and enter work ‘fit for the future’, we found there to be significant research barriers to create the most effective service – what are the jobs of the future? And what qualifications are needed to enter these jobs? For businesses to create a service truly effective in helping people into longer-term employment, there is a need for a platform/service which does regular analysis into where our labour market is heading and sharing it in plain English with the private sector.
In the future, The Big Issue are also hoping to partner with energy companies to create a scheme similar to that of the eBikes but focussing instead on the installation of smart-metres, solar panels or the replacement of gas boilers. I question why thousands in the UK must decide between heating their homes in winter or going hungry, as they overpay for essential utilities. Why do energy companies not urge their customers towards this ‘just transition’ also? Committing to employing only the long-term unemployed to carry out these services, we again would aim to slowly chip away at both the social and environmental threats which hang over our world today.
Lastly, slightly predictably, whilst my social enterprise endeavours to ooze social good, we have found the fact that there is a sincere lack of funding available an obstacle, especially since The Big Issue has undergone its worst year in history, revenue-wise. My attention was recently drawn to a policy being implemented by the Republic of Ireland - the government is offering grants to companies which create jobs within the country, with the caveat that those jobs have to be filled by people who are resident in the Republic of Ireland. I wonder why my Government is not equally trying to incentivise this behaviour.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecasted unemployment for 2021 to be between 1.9 million and 4 million. Within this number, those who are disproportionately represented are those starting and ending their career lifecycle – this problem of youth unemployment is expected to compound the UK’s productivity crisis.
This past year, statistics have been published which shape the narrative that a green recovery is the answer; a recent report by IPPR stated that 1.6million green jobs could be created if the Government injects its money right. However, there is also much literature which explains the UK is facing a skills crisis which pre-dates this pandemic. CBI reported that research carried out prior to the crisis showed nine in ten workers would need new skills before 2030. This is important when considering our case for a green recovery.
A paper by Chen et al (2020) investigated how important the incumbent skillset of a country’s labour force is for the efficacy of green investment in a recession. Naturally, they reported that a green recovery will be more costly the larger the gap between skills needed for green jobs (which will be created) and ‘brown jobs’ (which will be lost). They identified a set of ‘Green General skills’ which are potentially used in all occupations but are in higher demand within the green economy; this composes of engineering (which includes construction and building skills), operations management, monitoring and scientific skills.
However, as is well known, our economy has largely found its comparative advantage in services. Our large services sector, low business investment and the impact of Brexit will all prove decisive blows in our efforts to recover from the economic effects of Covid, let alone attempting a purely green recovery: the labour force has to be able to fill the jobs that are created.
Chen et al (2020) proposed that green stimulus tends to help reshape economies, rather than restart them, especially since most benefits tend to be seen in the long run. However, given the tremendous need for our transition to net zero, this finding simply indicates that our recovery must be two-pronged. Efforts to create jobs in the short term should be complemented by investments, policies and incentives for building innovation and skills to meet these longer-term challenges. Especially since those who are likely to have lost their jobs to Covid are those in lower-skilled, ‘browner’ sectors.
If we do choose to only implement the shorter-term policies which boost our employment statistics faster but temporarily during our recovery, we can expect to see history repeat itself. From the Gilet Jaune movement in France, to populism sweeping over nations, it is clear there are real ramifications to leaving behind sections of society, whilst the rest of us push on to ‘progress’. Political support from those who stand to lose from a just transition is necessary to obtain before continuing. The clear solution therefore presents itself: retraining.
Here we come to the crux of the issue. How prepared is the UK to retrain its labour force? Currently, adult training is thought of as a higher earner’s game. If you’re struggling to pay rent, would it make sense to take time out to retrain for a job that you don’t know exists and there is no certainty that you will get? Do you even know which career path will offer you the most stability and which qualifications are needed to enter that sector? Is there information on green skills on our Government’s online skills toolkit?
Despite the dismal picture painted, I remain hopeful. The UK contains world-leading academic institutions which are ripe with visions for the future. We have many vocational institutions which teach thousands of people every day practical skills (although I question whether areas such as wind-turbine-maintenance should soon be added and the overall list of vocations, updated). Lastly, there has been many a time, the UK has smashed out a stunning piece of legislation which leverages what it can uniquely offer.
An interesting example I had stumbled upon was their ‘Contracts for Difference’ initiative – in the UK Energy Act of 2013 – where the Government leveraged its ability to mitigate risk for a risk-averse group (start-ups) to incentivise green behaviour. This was designed entirely with incentives in mind to support low-carbon electricity generation. The Act guarantees low-carbon energy generators will be paid by a government-owned company a constant (strike) price per unit supplied to the National Grid for 15 to 20 years. This provided certainty and stability of revenues to new electricity generators, giving the initial sizeable start- up investment required some certainty of returns, de-risking renewable energy investments which led to significant increases in provision over a short timeframe.
I question whether this de-risking can be applied to other groups – perhaps via a job guarantees for those who would like to retrain and enter the green economy.