2024 marks four decades of Citizen’s Basic Income Trust (CBIT). Across almost my entire lifespan, CBIT has led and coordinated basic income research in Britain and beyond in ways that have transformed understanding of what is possible in social security reform. The early 1980s were a very different context for welfare reform.
Many of the factors that have increased interest in basic income in recent years, such as the rise of precarity, had not taken hold in such a broad form across the entirety of society, while the welfare system was much less conditional than it is today. It is in this sense that we need to understand just how pioneering CBIT has been.
As an initial step, we have decided to return CBIT to its original name: the Basic Income Research Group (BIRG). This honours and upholds the key contribution of the charity. As we go forward, we will ensure that the research that has been produced over the last few decades will be digitised and preserved for future generations on a revamped website.
We have also brought new trustees with diverse backgrounds to sustain and develop the organisation’s work, including representatives of communities seeking to implement basic income pilots as well as sectors of the economy facing the worst excesses of neoliberal reform.
At this point, it is essential that I recognise and thank all of the trustees whose guardianship has ensured that BIRG can make an impact in its fifth decade. Simon Duffy has handed over the role of Chair and remains a trustee, Stuart White, Anne Gray, Jake Elliott and Gareth Morgan have all stood down as trustees. They have been the lifeblood of CBIT and will honour their leadership and that of countless others by preserving accessible archives of CBIT’s work. It is brilliant that Annie Miller is staying on while that happens.
We are now entering into a period of constitutional review concerning additional elements of our organisation going forward and have decided to consider afresh the patron and associates structure. Guy Standing and Louise Haagh, two giants in the field of basic income, end their stints as patrons with our sincere gratitude. Anthony Painter and Luke Martinelli end their roles as associates with equal thanks.
While we consider structural change, strategically we have decided to concentrate our work specifically on basic income research and those areas of research on which a distinctive contribution can be made within Britain. We will work in equal partnership with UBI Lab Network, Citizen Network and Basic Income for Farmers to develop and achieve impact from this work.
To begin with we will focus on five related areas:
- First, the health case for basic income, which has focused on basic income’s role in mitigating social determinants. This is shaping concern for a whole of government approach to addressing our crises, in which the Treasury is absolutely key to relieving pressure on our health services. This overlaps with broader work within the Common Sense Policy Group, including our forthcoming book, Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything.
- Second, and in equal partnership with Citizen Network, basic income plus, which is a new and radical idea for reforming the benefit system. This opens up a path to a planned transition from UC to a system that means everyone gets enough money to live on and those that need extra resources because of disability or other needs then get additional resources on top of the basic element that everyone gets. We will work with disability rights organisations to enable a formal position to be adopted. This would be a significant political victory.
- Third, the role basic income in addressing rural economies that are past the point of broken and in which levels of poverty and exposure to some of the worst excesses of inequality are stark. We will work in equal partnership with Basic Income for Farmers on an initial report examining the public opinion and economic implications of basic income for rural communities.
- Fourth, and in equal partnership with UBI Lab Network, basic income as a central pillar of social security for workers affected by the transition to renewables. In Act Now, we set out a quadruple lock to protect workers as part of a Green New Deal, with basic income serving as a guarantee of social security. As with our work on basic income plus, we will work in partnership with trade unions to establish a pathway to their adopting a formal position on basic income both in this specific context of climate change-related job insecurity, but also more broadly as a means of protecting workers.
- Fifth, also in equal partnership with UBI Lab Manchester, we will work toward pioneering basic income pilots and trials, building on underpinning research and plans, to set out clear pathways to funding, evaluation and adoption.
These are areas in which research in Britain is leading debate internationally. They are not exclusive foci, but they will form the basis of our work over the coming years. They also highlight the way in which we will work in equal partnership with campaigning organisations that know best how to change minds.
To achieve impact, we need to publish to the highest standards and in a forum in which there is capacity for focused debate on the implications of research in these areas. As such, we will devote one issue per annum of Global Discourse to these areas, proving a consistent forum in which to develop and consolidate ideas and findings over the longer-term.
To this end, Simon Duffy, Dave Beck and Elliott Johnson, who have joined the editorial board, are currently engaging with a wide range of colleagues and disability rights organisations to develop our first issue in 2025 entitled ‘Basic Income Plus: Can radical welfare reforms accommodate diverse needs?’
Our hope is that we will be able to find means of making as much content as possible freely available.
As we go forward, we will be updating and developing our online profile through the website including by digitising and archiving the decades’ worth of research produced by BIRG Trustees and members.
Given that the way in which people access news and information on basic income since 1984, we will only circulate updates via newsletters when we have something substantive and new to say. This will ensure that we focus time and effort on the work that will make basic income a reality.
As ever, this work is only possible through funding. Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated and will be recognised in BIRG’s publications.
If you wish to make a donation, please contact our Treasurer, Howard Reed at howard.reed@northumbria.ac.uk .
At a time in which the need for basic income is becoming clearer by the day, this is an exciting new chapter in BIRG’s history.
Matthew Johnson
Chair