Big ideas for a better Britain
Most regulation is written by people who have never had to answer the phone, chase an invoice and file a return in the same hour. A national reverse-secondment scheme — four weeks a year, every regulator, real small firms — would cost less than a consultation and change far more. Here's how it could work.
Councils are under pressure to innovate but rarely want to become investors. A town hall venture studio offers a third way: co-found social enterprises with secondments, procurement guarantees and shared back-office support, taking no equity but earning a return through better services and local resilience.
Community foundations hold long-lived endowments and deep local knowledge. A small, ring-fenced slice of that money could become patient backing for nearby founders — if governance, risk and mission are handled with care.
Plenty of retired directors have hard-won judgment to share; plenty of small firms could never afford a non-exec. A national lending library for boardroom experience could bridge that gap — with the right safeguards.
Most four-day-week trials happen inside one company. A coordinated town-wide pilot would put councils, SMEs, charities and high-street traders in the same experiment, testing whether shorter working time can boost footfall, wellbeing and local recruitment. It is messier than a corporate trial, but that may be exactly why it is worth trying.
Auto-enrolment pensions and local government pension pots hold enormous long-term capital. With the right guardrails, a slice of that money could become patient, place-based investment in social enterprises and community businesses, without gambling with anyone’s retirement. The case is stronger than the sceptics suggest, but only if mission drift is taken seriously.
Repair has spent a decade as Britain's favourite volunteer hobby. The next stage is harder and more interesting: turning it into paid work, steady contracts and local supply chains. We look at what's actually holding fixers back — and what would let them scale.
Most UK founders raise money from people who will never walk past their front door. A small, deliberate community share allocation would buy patience, loyalty and something venture capital can't supply: a place that actually cares whether you survive.
Vacant shops are too often treated as a symptom of decline. With the right leases, light-touch planning and council backing, they could become low-cost labs where local founders and social enterprises test what works.
A quieter idea of success is taking root in the UK startup scene. Instead of chasing hyper-growth at all costs, a new generation of founders is building profitable, resilient companies with purpose baked in. It is time investors and policymakers caught up.
Most social enterprise funding flows to people already in the network. A civic lottery — 1,000 randomly selected Britons, £10,000 each, plus mentorship — would be a cheap experiment in democratising innovation.
NHS trusts, universities and councils are waking up to their role as economic anchors. From Birmingham to Glasgow, procurement and property are being reimagined as tools for seeding locally owned social enterprises — but policy still lags behind the pilots.