How the Church can help the economy in the UK
How the Church can help the economy in the UK
Our analyst Muhammad Faisal Khalil looks at what churches and religious charities can do to help with the struggling economy in the UK.
This weekly comment was written by Muhammad Faisal Khalil and reflects his personal analyses and opinions, rather than those of EARS.
On 1 February 2023, nearly half a million UK workers, including nurses, teachers, and railway workers, went on strike, demanding wage increases.[1] The UK government condemned the strikes and backed legislation limiting workers’ right to strike, even though many argue that the strikes are the result of years of austerity measures by the government.[2] For over a decade, the government has raised taxes and made spending cuts to social services, to reduce public debt.[3] This has caused one of the worst cost of living crises in the country.[4] The new strikes come at a time when the UK braces for “austerity on steroids,”[5] with plans to plug a £55 billion fiscal hole through even more spending cuts and tax rises.[6]
The public appeal of austerity
Despite the arguments of economic self-harm against it, austerity continues to have an enduring political appeal. It has been embraced by governments around the world, including the UK.[7] More surprisingly, austerity has been a widely-accepted public narrative in the UK.[8] As Dr Sarah Macmillan of the University of Birmingham once pointed out, austerity creates the narrative that present suffering will lead to future prosperity.[9]
Supporting the narrative of austerity
This ‘tough-but-rewarding’ narrative has also been embraced by religious institutions in the UK. These institutions, including the Church of England, have stepped in to fill the gap left by the public sector by setting up a range of services, including food banks, winter shelters for the homeless, and street pastor services.[10] These services have seen substantial growth and helped millions of Britons weather hard times.[11] Despite this, it can be argued that a number of these initiatives support the Austerian narrative that self-denial leads to future liberation. These initiatives have a reductionist view of poverty, offering temporary relief to poverty rather than addressing its underlying causes.
A holistic response to poverty
Religious institutions, therefore, should consider a more complete way of addressing poverty that takes into account its different causes, and how it affects many parts of a person’s life all at once. The Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations[12] recently put forward this recommendation in the case of the Church of England. Its three-year research project ‘Life on the Breadline’, which interviewed 120 national and regional Church leaders, highlighted that the Church must respond to the impact of austerity by reimagining itself as a fluid social movement.[13]
In other words, religious institutions, such as the Church, must commit themselves to collaborative and sustained action in the public sphere that goes beyond the current model of charity-based work.[14] It can be argued, therefore, that the Church’s role against poverty is not just about lessening the effects of poverty, but campaigning and advocating against policy measures that create poverty in the first place.
This weekly comment was written by Muhammad Faisal Khalil and reflects his personal analyses and opinions, rather than those of EARS.
Interested in similar topics? Go to our Dashboard.
Sources
[1] The UK labor strikes are years in the making – Vox
[2] The UK labor strikes are years in the making – Vox
[3] The lost decade: the hidden story of how austerity broke Britain | Public sector cuts | The Guardian
[4] The UK is in a crisis of living standards, not public finances | New Economics Foundation
[5] UK Braces for New Austerity With Little Left for Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak to Cut – Bloomberg
[6] The UK labor strikes are years in the making – Vox
[7] The Decade of Adjustment: A Review of Austerity Trends 2010-2020 in 187 Countries Isabel Ortiz Matthew Cummins Jeronim Capaldo
[8] Austerity’s enduring appeal has ancient roots in asceticism
[9] Austerity’s enduring appeal has ancient roots in asceticism
[10] How churches are filling the gap left by UK austerity cuts | Financial Times
[11] Politics, Poverty and the Church in an ‘Age of Austerity’
[12] Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations | Coventry University
[13] Politics, Poverty and the Church in an ‘Age of Austerity’
[14] Politics, Poverty and the Church in an ‘Age of Austerity’
