{"id":8126,"date":"2020-12-11T10:44:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T10:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/?p=8126"},"modified":"2021-08-24T23:41:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T23:41:56","slug":"letter-social-infrastructure-is-also-vital-to-recovery-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/?p=8126","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Social infrastructure is also vital to recovery plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UK chancellor Rishi Sunak plans to set up a national infrastructure bank to \u201cchannel billions of pounds into capital projects\u201d<!--more--> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/7a4f278b-4462-4123-a4c9-c7786d225baf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Report<\/a>, November 21).<\/p>\n<p>We write to urge the chancellor to broaden his vision. The regeneration of Britain\u2019s \u201cnational infrastructure\u201d must include investment in \u201csocial infrastructure\u201d such as childcare, schools and universities, regional theatres, orchestras, common spaces and local sports.<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic has shown these economic activities are just as vital to society and the economy as the physical infrastructure of asphalt roads, green energy and safe bridges. And research demonstrates that investment in care has multiplier effects many times those of investing in construction, while generating far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, these investments can be kickstarted in less time than construction projects.<\/p>\n<p>Under-investment in social infrastructure before the pandemic was a false economy; it would be even more so as we move into the recovery phase. Channeling money into Britain\u2019s social infrastructure and especially into its care, education, arts and training sectors would create jobs, generate income for workers, the Treasury, and the wider economy, and contribute to a more robust and sustainable economy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Patrick Allen, Danny Dorling, Susan Himmelweit, Ann Pettifor, Robert Skidelsky, Carolina Alves, Daniela Gabor, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Will Hutton, Michael Jacobs, Sue Konzelmann, Natalya Naqvi, Kate Pickett, Josh Ryan-Collins, Guy Standing, and Jan Toporowski (Council Members of the Progressive Economy Forum London NW1, UK)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">December 11th, 2020<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>For a PDF of the letter and a link to where it was published in the Financial Times click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/?page_id=8118\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8127\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8127\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8127\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/wp-content\/files\/Allen_Letter_Image.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/wp-content\/files\/Allen_Letter_Image.png 794w, https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/wp-content\/files\/Allen_Letter_Image-300x192.png 300w, https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/wp-content\/files\/Allen_Letter_Image-768x491.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8127\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of men in hard hats used in the original Financial Times Report to which this letter is a response<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK chancellor Rishi Sunak plans to set up a national infrastructure bank to \u201cchannel billions of pounds into capital projects\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8497,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126\/revisions\/8497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}