Building a Citizens’ Economy

If we want to create an economy that has citizens at its heart, what would it take, who is responsible - and how?

The Citizens’ Economic Council programme was launched 6 days after the divisive EU referendum in 2016. Since then, we have witnessed the rise of populism, the mainstreaming of post-truth information, and a huge decline in trust in our political and economic leaders, symbolized by the so-called “death of the expert”. Throughout this, the programme has worked to give voice to those left-behind, demonstrate how citizens can be engaged and energised in economic debate, and increase understanding about how deliberative democracy can rebuild legitimacy of economic policymaking.

The programme travelled across the UK, and listened to groups that included steelworkers, students and LGBT community members, all calling for change as they shared their lived experiences of the British economy. The Citizens’ Economic Council rose to this challenge, deliberating on the economic issues our society faces to co-design an economy that works for everyone.

As we now launch our final report, we challenge panellists and audience alike to take responsibility for their role in creating a citizens’ economy. At the event, we will hear from Patricia Wharton, member of the Council itself; Anand Menon, one of the UK’s leading voices on Brexit, and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative; Gemma Tetlow, Economics Correspondent for the Financial Times; and Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England.