Salisbury Plain MP wants to build on Covid-19 community spirit

The MP for the Devizes area was asked back in June to come up with some proposals for how the kinds of community spirit we saw during lockdown could be carried on into the future.

Danny Kruger's calling for a 'more local, more human, less bureaucratic, less centralised society in which people are supported and empowered to play an active role in their neighbourhoods'.

In his report, which can be downloaded from his website, he's come up with a few ideas that he'd like to take forward, including:

• A 'Community Power Act' to give local people power over the design and delivery of public services

• A Volunteer Passport system to match the supply and demand for voluntary help

• A new National Volunteer Reserve to help with future emergencies and ongoing environmental challenges

• An annual Neighbour Day bank holiday to celebrate communities and volunteering

• A new £500 million Community Recovery Fund to help civil society during the current crisis

• A new £2 billion endowment, the Levelling Up Communities Fund, for investment in long-term, community-led transformation in left-behind areas

Danny Kruger says he's taken some inspiration from the community spirit we've seen close to home in recent months:

"We have an amazing strength in our local communities in Wiltshire, including Community First and the Wiltshire Community Foundation and hundreds of smaller local bodies at town and parish level. This is the network our neighbourhoods need in order to survive and thrive in the months and years ahead."

In his report, the MP for Tidworth, Shipton Bellinger and Ludgershall also said:

"We are on the cusp of a new era of economic and social policy. The era just ending was governed by economic and social doctrines which have caused us to become the most regionally unequal country in the developed world, with a range of chronic social challenges. The era now opening must address these challenges by putting communities at the heart of policy making.

"The experience of the recent crisis - the willingness of local people to step forward and collaborate, the flexibility shown by public services and the social commitment of businesses - shows what is possible."

PRIME MINISTER'S RESPONSE

Boris Johnson has written to Danny Kruger to thank him for his work on the report.

He's said he'll pass the recommendations on to the Minister for Civil Society, Diana Barran, and the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, to see if they can be taken forward, in discussion with charities and organisations.

In his letter, the Prime Minister said:

"We have seen tremendous levels of voluntary action by private citizens, and of innovation and partnership between the public, private and social sectors (during the pandemic). These are critical elements of the social model we want to see for the recovery, and into the future.

"I am pleased to announce that on 'public value commissioning', we are launching a new framework for public procurement by central government. Drawing on the best models of local procurement, this framework will level the playing field for small business and social enterprises so they can win more contracts from government."