Keynote Speakers

Vince Cable MP

In a wide-ranging speech to conference, Vince Cable said the British economy had suffered "a massive heart attack" saying it was now "in intensive care".

Describing how "too much cheap money" had come into the system, creating an unstable bubble, he also criticised the banking system as being inherently unstable itself – over confident and greedy in the good times and contracting when things go wrong, leading to recession.

He said no-one knows whether the crisis is passing.

The four main consequences of the crisis, according to Mr Cable, were unemployment, a broken banking system, housing market dysfunction and the impact on the public purse.

On this last point he said that the timing and priority of budget cuts was crucial. He said that traditionally cuts are made on capital spending – housing and infrastructure – first, and then on local government spending. His view, he said, was that local government would then look to the third sector to do the work of the public sector at a cheaper price.

Looking at the long-term, Mr Cable said that two questions needed to rise to the top of the agenda.

1. Reform of the Banking sector – In his view, this sector is too large in the UK, com pared to other countries such as Germany and France. He said we needed a more diverse, competitive, banking sector which includes stronger mutuals, local community banks and credit unions (which he said were finding it hard to survive).

2. A more diverse economy – less dependant on the financial sector, and using green technology with more vehicles for longer term investment in infrastructure and industry.

Karen Chouhan
Director, Equanomics UK

Karen put the case that equality must be at the heart of any recovery of the economy. She argued that we need a fusion of equality with economic justice, and that we cannot have social inclusion and integration without economic inclusion.

She quoted the Equal Rights Trust "as poverty may be both a cause and a consequence of discrimination, measures to alleviate poverty should be coordinated with measures to combat discrimination, in pursuit of full and effective equality"

On the forthcoming Equalities Bill, Karen expressed concern that it will lead to dropping of equalities schemes, and a lowing of the bar as targets and outcomes are set by local authorities themselves, at a time where we need action more than ever - for example to tackle race inequality, demonstrated in what we know about child poverty and employment.

Karen argued that the discourse around race equality is too negative at the moment. She questioned the focus on segregation in current policy discussions on community cohesion, saying that the facts don't support this, and if there are the odd pockets where one ethnic group dominates this is often because they don't have the means to move out of these areas, but these areas are not the norm.

Karen also pointed out that BME communities are continually talked about as a drain, a deficit. This isn't true, she said. She referred to Jesse Jackson in asserting that when people of colour really do have a level playing field they do well. Furthermore, black and asian communities earn and consume £156bn after tax, with young men being the biggest consumers and spending £32bn every year.

She highlighted the fact that young black people are stimatised particularly by sections of the press, and associated in people's minds with crime - at odds with the reality of the situation, that last year 92% of young black people didn't have any contact whatsoever with the police or the criminal justice system.

Karen suggested that now is the time for civil and human rights leaders to focus on economic justice, and explained that this was why Equanomics support the campaign for the community reinvestment act, and want to work with Urban Forum and Runneymede Trust to run a series of seminars in main cities to build the campaign.

Q Paul, Friends of the Earth, asked what was driving divisions socially, economically, environmentally - as demonstrated by a recent JRF report. Is it short term aspirations being prioritised over long term planning?

A The Government now talk about ‘fairness', and talks about this as a cost to government, not on a redistributive principal, as demonstrated by John Denham's statement at the Fabian Society conference that "the age of egalitarianism is dead." An individualist ethic from the era of Thatcher and Reagon onwards has taken over. But we have seen that the ‘trickle down theory' doesn't work. We need to address this underlying issue.

Q Jess Steele asked about welfare reform to tackle financial exclusion.

A Karen stated that money breeds money, and if you're poor everything is harder, you pay more for things, the highest rates of interest etc. She questioned the justice in the level of financial support given to the banks.

More details from the conference will be added as they becomes available. Keep checking back.