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Date: 2025-07-01 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00010121

Initiatives
New Economics Foundation (NEF)

Responses to austerity

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Responses to austerity

Photo credit: MOD

Recent spending cuts in public services have put communities and organisations across the UK under intense pressure. While the negative social consequences are well documented, less attention has been paid to the range of creative ways in which local authorities, housing associations, grant-makers and funders, the charitable and voluntary sector, campaigners and activists have responded.

NEF’s research has highlighted three main responses to austerity:

  • Adapting: mobilising the support of people in local communities and attracting new sources of funding to sustain local services.

  • Challenging: building the case against austerity and refuting the narrative on which it stands.

  • Imagining: thinking about alternatives and a future beyond austerity – from local economic development to preventative services and policies.

We want you to get involved

If you’re an activist or campaigner, work at a charity, housing association or local authority then we want you to get involved. NEF is hosting two major learning events in London and Birmingham to explore the most creative and effective approaches that you can use to help shape the public debate in response to austerity measures. We will be hosting workshops that focus on:

  • Movement-building for social change – with the New Economy Organising Network (NEON) and Syriza

  • Outcomes-based commissioning and co-production in public services – with NEF and Lambeth Council

  • Strengthening local economies – with Preston City Council and NEF

  • Challenging austerity with evidence and action – with Councillor Frank Hont from Liverpool City Council and Psychologists Against Austerity

  • Eco-social approaches which promote social justice and environmental sustainability

There will also be a panel discussion and Open Space session.


Sign-up for one of our free learning events here

ISSUES

Public Service Reform

Blog posts

  • Fighting for social justice in times of austerity

  • The impact of austerity: how much do we know and what can we do about it?

  • What happens when people take local services into their own hands?

  • How local authorities can boost their economies

Publications

Responses to austerity

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