The Basic Income Conversation is an initiative to promote the idea of Universal Basic Income in the UK. It mixes community organising and cutting edge research and communications to shape a new narrative for Basic Income, taking the idea from the periphery to the mainstream.
A Basic Income Conversation is a structured discussion that helps you deepen your understanding of basic income and look at its potential impacts. They are led by your stories — of why we need basic income, what we’d do with it and what impact it would have on our communities. We believe because a basic income would go to everyone, everyone should have their say about what it looks like.
This campaign was powered by Compass from 2020 until 2023, when the project moved to Autonomy. While at Compass, Basic Income Conversation secured massive wins for the movement for a Basic Income.
Two weeks into the first Covid-19 UK lockdown, they collected tens of thousands of signatures on petitions calling for an emergency basic income in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. They coordinated this early day motion calling for a basic income, which received backing from 8 parties and Boris Johnson was asked to address the proposal during PMQs.
Their biggest project, A Big Local Basic Income outlines a proposal for basic income micro-pilot. This proposal is the result of two years of community consultation in Central Jarrow and the Grange area of East Finchley to design a basic income pilot in their areas.
This community consultation, supported by Basic Income Conversation and Northumbria University, found substantial support for basic income pilots. A combination of door-knocking, workshops, roundtables and surveys found that the majority of respondents felt both that it was a good idea in principle and that it would be good to run pilots in their local areas. Moreover, the design of the pilot itself was co-designed with residents.
They organised from the grassroots and across civil society to make sure everyone has a say in the movement towards a basic income for all. They:
- Coordinated an open letter to the Prime Minister co-signed by 285 politicians and civil society leaders calling on him to set up a task force on basic income and implement pilots in all four nations
- With the UBI Lab Network, launched a letter writing campaign people across London write letters to their London Assembly members asking them to support a motion in support of a London basic income pilot.
- Working with Zack Polanski and the Green Group of London Assembly Members, to write this report and deliver a Big Basic Income Conversation in City Hall in London.
Sadiq Khan said about this work that he would applaud the Londoners coming together to organise the trial, the Mayor of London said “it’s fantastic” and “if there’s a good case for support, of course I’ll support the pilot that they’re looking into in East Finchley.”
- In 2021, Basic Income Conversation crowdfunded a basic income pilot. We were told that the payments were most frequently used for food, that they disproportionately benefitted mothers and people with no recourse to public funds and that the structure of the funds gave people a sense of dignity and trust.
They published reports on Basic Income, improving the research base on the subject as well as looking at the popularity of the policy:
- Basic Income for All: From Desirability to Feasibility by Stewart Lansley and Howard Reed
- Universal Basic Income: An idea whose time has come? by Stewart Lansley and Howard Reed
- Tackling Poverty: the power of a universal basic income a report that shows how a low level basic income could bring poverty down to record lows
- Winning the vote with a universal basic income, a paper backed by politicians from across the “Red Wall”
- ‘Treating causes not symptoms: Basic Income as a public health measure’, this groundbreaking new research lays out the public health impact of a Basic Income – and how much it could save our NHS.
- An evaulation of the Scottish Basic Income Feasibility Study – Are Scottish Basic Income Pilots Possible?
- Meeting the Economic and Livelihood Crisis: From a Recovery Basic Income to a Permanent Income Floor, a report making the case for a recovery Basic Income in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, accompanied by a briefing on the subject.
The history:
Michael was the Director and Co-Founder of the Basic Income Conversation. He’s a Community Organiser by trade with a background in the Living Wage Campaign having worked for Citizens UK. He sees Universal Basic Income as vital to shaping our future and seeks to blend community organising and research to make it a reality. X: @MichaelPugh.
Cleo is Co-Founder of the Basic Income Conversation. She joins as a Basic Income activist who’s been working to increase engagement with the concept in Scotland for the past few years. Cleo was the Director and Treasurer of Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland, a volunteer led, educational charity working closely alongside the Scottish Government funded Basic Income feasibility study. Her background is in third sector communications, community building and business development. Cleo believes that a true investment in people in the form of a Basic Income is required to enable the scale of social change needed at this point in history. Twitter: @CleoGoodman. Email: cleo@autonomy.work