• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Joint Public Issues Team

Churches working for peace and justice

  • Home Page
  • Who We Are
    • Six hopes for society
  • Issues
    • Economy
      • Tax Justice
      • Reset The Debt
      • Living Wage
    • Environment
      • Net Zero In My Neighbourhood
    • Poverty and Inequality
      • The Cost of Living Crisis
      • Universal Credit
      • Truth and Lies
      • Enough
      • Rethink Sanctions
      • Faith in Foodbanks
      • Housing and Homelessness
    • Asylum and Migration
      • Refugees
      • End Hostility
      • The Asylum System
    • Peacemaking
      • The Arms Trade
      • Nuclear Weapons
      • Drones
      • Peacemaking resources
    • Politics and Elections
      • Elections
      • Meet Your MP
      • Art of the Possible
      • Brexit
    • Other Issues
      • International Development
      • Modern Slavery and Exploitation
        • Forced labour in fashion
  • Get Involved
    • JPIT Conference 2022
    • Newsletter
    • Events
    • Walking with Micah
  • Resources
    • Advent
    • 10 Minutes on… podcast
    • Politics in the Pulpit?
    • Stay and Pray
    • Season of Creation
    • Prayers
    • Public Issues Calendar
    • Poetry
    • Small Group Resources
  • Blog

Why we need a new vision for an economy where everyone can flourish

Blog, COVID-19, Economy, Environment, Poverty and Inequality · 9 July, 2020

Why we need a new vision for an economy where everyone can flourish

A response to the budget update on 8th July 2020.

The Chancellor’s budget update yesterday focused on building employment. The scale of the challenge ahead is huge, and an emergency response is welcome and necessary. But if we genuinely want this crisis to be a turning point, where we build an economy that puts the wellbeing of all people and the planet at the centre, much more radical changes are needed.

The number of children needing help from foodbanks has doubled since the coronavirus crisis began. There is an irony that these families, who need food the most, will be excluded from the government’s largest ever subsidised food programme announced this week.

Our economy is designed in a way that creates many such ironies where the greatest help and opportunity is offered to those who need it least. This budget statement with big tax cuts and grants for those with enough money to buy houses falls into some of these same traps.

As Churches, we long for the flourishing of all people and the wellbeing of the planet. But an economy obsessed with ever increasing property and share prices is standing in the way. The pursuit of economic growth and ever-increasing consumption is increasingly leaving many behind and our planet is being gravely damaged in the process. Simply patching up the economy after the crisis and carrying on should not be an option – but this statement has left us on that trajectory.

It is irrefutable that climate change is an emergency that demands immediate action. The measures introduced by the Chancellor to improve energy efficiency and create more green jobs are a welcome start. But it is not yet clear if measures of the scale necessary are being planned.

The chancellor may have judged that this was not the time for radical measures. But the Autumn budget certainly is.

There is a movement of people across the UK and beyond who are working towards this kind of transformation, where our economy can serve the wellbeing of all people and the planet. Communities and businesses are already working to move from simply reducing their environmental impact to having a positive effect on their environment. Some are even moving from a goal of ever-increasing market wealth to providing both decent employment alongside sustainable products and services.

We urge the Government to be courageous, to join in with this vison and to use the enormous levers of government spending, regulation and monetary policy to point our economy in a new direction, where all people are offered the chance to thrive.


As Churches, we long for the flourishing of people and the wellbeing of our planet. As we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, we find ourselves at a critical moment where we could re-shape the economy to enable the wellbeing of all people and the planet. Read more about our vision to re-engineer the economy to deliver a just and sustainable future here.

From Recovery to Flourishing

Filed Under: Blog, COVID-19, Economy, Environment, Poverty and Inequality

Paul Morrison

I am the policy advisor with particular responsibility for issues around the economy including poverty and inequality. Prior to working for the Methodist Church I was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College studying viral disease and vaccine design.

Previous Post: « Keep KitKat Fairtrade
Next Post: Universal Credit is still not delivering »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Posts

  • JPIT’s Review of 2022
  • What does Government Support for Asylum Seekers really provide?
  • God with Us – the Refugees of Calais and Dunkirk
  • How can we respond to COP27?
  • Statement on the conclusion of the COP27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
  • COP27 – what should we be looking for?
  • “He has filled the hungry with good things” – What we need from the Autumn Budget
  • What are the stories we should tell about the humanitarian crisis at Manston Airport Asylum centre?
  • How can we be sure that the products we buy are not the result of modern slavery?
  • Why I hate Warm Banks (and why my church is opening one)
  • How does our theology call us to challenge Poverty?
  • Introducing Alfie
  • Biden says nuclear risk is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Churches respond to risk to benefit levels
  • Briefing on the ‘Mini Budget’ for the Enough to Live group
  • Introducing Hazel
  • Introducing Hannah
  • An energy cap announcement in three parts: the good, the absent and the ugly
  • Afghanistan and the UK – One Year On from the Fall Of Kabul
  • Inflation, interest rates and the poorest

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Footer

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Quick links

Stay and Pray
Politics in the Pulpit
Faith in Politics podcast
Public Issues Calendar
Useful Links

Our work

About Us
Meet the Team
Join the Team 
Internship
Our Newsletter

Contact us

25 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5JR

Tel: 020 7916 8632

enquiries@jpit.uk

Copyright © 2023 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in