NEF Webpage: These are NEF’s proposals for a new social settlement – a framework for deciding how we live together, what we expect from our governments and what we want to achieve for ourselves and others. It builds on the strengths of the post-War settlement inspired by the Beveridge Plan, but moves on – because the world has changed profoundly – to offer a bold new approach to the challenges we face today.
The new social settlement has three goals: social justice, environmental sustainability, and a more equal distribution of power. All three are intertwined and must be pursued together. They tackle severe contemporary problems: widening social inequalities, accelerating threats to the natural environment, and accumulations of power by wealthy elites.
These goals lead to a set of objectives, which highlight crucial issues too often ignored in mainstream debate. Like the goals, they too are linked together and can be mutually reinforcing:
> Plan for prosperity without depending on economic growth.
> Shift investment and action upstream to prevent harm instead of just coping with the consequences.
> Value and strengthen the core economy of unpaid work, everyday wisdom and social connections on which all our lives depend.
> Foster solidarity, understanding just how much we depend on each other to achieve our goals.
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