New website maps the UK’s emerging new economy

This week the New Economics Foundation launched Change the Rules, a new website that maps inspiring local, community and workplace initiatives to build a more democratic and sustainable economy, and showcases the policies to make it happen.

We have so far mapped more than 50 initiatives across the UK – from co-operative energy to community banks to companies implementing a four-day week – and will be adding more each week. They include:

• The Marine Dream Hub in St Ives — a coastal hub bringing together marginalised communities to make the most of their marine environment and boost their local economy.
• Fossetts for the People in Southend — local campaigners calling for former NHS land to be used for publicly owned social housing.
• The Isle of Eigg in the Hebrides — a community-owned island that has been labelled Britain’s most eco-friendly.
• Simply Business in Northampton – an insurance company where 250 staff are taking part in the UK’s largest four-day working week trial.
• Granby 4 Streets in Liverpool — a determined group of residents that saved their streets by taking them over.

As well as celebrating these initiatives, Change the Rules showcases the policies that will nurture them. And because the threats we face need urgent national and international action, we set out the policies to scale up these local alternatives and embed their principles at the highest level. Alongside policies from NEF we feature those of other organisations such as our supporter partners Common Wealth and We Own It.

We live in anxious times, surrounded by the symptoms of our failing economic model: flatlining wages, precarious work and, above all, the existential threat of environmental breakdown. And yet, across the UK, there are seeds of hope, as some communities develop local economic models that share prosperity and protect the planet. These alternatives, springing up from below, allow us to imagine a different future.

Just as the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, set up by South Wales miners in 1890, inspired the creation of the National Health Service, today’s new economy projects can inspire the institutions of tomorrow.

We hope you find Change the Rules an inspiring and useful resource.

Illustration: Julie Saumagne.