Top 9 NEF highlights of 2024

2024 marked another busy year for NEF. We were joined by our new chief exec Danny Sriskandarajah in January, and just five months later watched a new party take control of the government for the first time in 14 years. From in-depth research to TV interviews, organising to podcasts, we spent 2024 working with people igniting change from below and conducting rigorous research to fight for change at the top.

NEF will continue to push this government to redesign the economy so it improves people’s lives, and pioneer new economic ideas for decades to come.

1. New Economics Podcast

The New Economics Podcast, hosted by Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, covered all the top economic issues of 2024. Ayeisha was joined by a cohort of top thinkers, including former Greek minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis, economic superstar Kate Raworth, author George Monbiot and academic Daniela Gabor.

Make sure you don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the New Economics Podcast on all good podcast apps, including Apple and Spotify.

2. Big power for Little London

NEF has been organising with residents of the Little London estate in Maltby, South Yorkshire, as they fight for better housing conditions. NEF produced and projected a film onto the derelict buildings on the estate as part of an event where residents shared personal testimonies. The action was covered by the BBC, and the campaign won a public commitment of support from mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard.

Local MP Jake Richards arranged for residents to meet housing minister Matthew Pennycook. With TV cameras in tow, the minister and residents discussed their living conditions and demands.

3. Reclaiming our regional economies

Our Reclaiming Our Regional Economies (RORE) programme has continued to gather pace in its second year. It aims to bring community economic power to the heart of decision-making by metro mayors and combined authorities, working with the mayoral teams in South Yorkshire, the North East and the West Midlands.

RORE hosted an event at the Labour Party Conference with minister Jim McMahon alongside mayors Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin and Richard Parker. Our Reclaiming our regions paper made the case for more devolution. And the RORE partners brought together 12 north-east grassroots groups to bring them into the combined authority’s decision-making process.

4. A living income for all

The Living Income campaign has been working in Greater Manchester to call for a minimum income to ensure people can afford all of life’s essentials. Over 100 people attended workshops to discuss how they want a living income pilot to look in Greater Manchester. The Greater Manchester living income steering group met with mayor Andy Burnham, after gathering hundreds of signatures on a petition. Burnham responded enthusiastically, saying ​“it’s been a real tonic to help remind me why I do this”.

5. Fighting airport expansion

NEF continued to support local communities fighting airport expansions with senior economist Alex Chapman once again providing expert testimony at a planning hearing. Our analysis led the outcry from local people and environmentalists over the government’s decision to increase passenger numbers by 2.5 million at London City Airport.

Alongside partners including Possible and Stay Grounded, we made the moral, economic and environmental case for fairer taxes on air travel in A frequent flying levy in Europe.

6. Tiered reserves go mainstream

Our proposal to limit stealth subsidies paid to commercial banks by the Bank of England exploded into the mainstream this year. Known as ​“tiered reserves”, our proposal was endorsed by Gordon Brown in the Guardian and on ITV’s Peston. Our call became an election issue as it was picked up by mainstream political journalists such as Andrew Marr and Emily Maitlis. It received coverage in the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Times and Bloomberg.

7. Pioneering macroeconomic policy

NEF has spearheaded the growing calls to change the government’s borrowing rules, while providing cutting-edge research into new macroeconomic policy. In the runup to the autumn budget, we exposed the flawed methodology the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) uses to forecast the impact of government spending, covered in the Times. We also called for the government to change how they calculate central bank debt, potentially freeing up £20bn for public investment. This captured the attention of the press, being covered and followed-up in the Times three times. It was also picked up by the Guardian, Reuters and the Daily Mail, twice.

8. Vital resources for the housing movement

Homes For Us is a coalition of grassroots organisations, charities and tenants’ unions who have come together to fight for more and better social housing, set up by NEF. It includes participatory regranting, enabling the housing movement to allocate resources where it is needed, but where traditional funders are unable to reach. For far, over £150,000 worth of grants have helped a range of activities, from providing food to evicted families to monitoring exposure to indoor air pollution to workshops for migrant women facing housing insecurity and the hostile immigration system.

9. On the airwaves

NEF spokespeople spent another year getting our work and message out across TV and radio, with over 50 broadcast appearances across 2024. Our chief exec Danny Sriskandarajah appeared on BBC Question Time to talk about water companies, reparations and the changes our new government needs to make.