Universal Basic Services
We believe that providing Universal Basic Services enhances people’s capacities and capabilities, bringing opportunities for greater economic and social participation through a shared infrastructure of public services.
What are Universal Basic Services?
Universal Basic Services (UBS) are a collection of public services free at the point of need and use, that enable every citizen to live a larger life by ensuring access to safety, opportunity, and enhanced democratic participation.
Developed by our Social Prosperity Network which published the UK's first report on Universal Basic Services in October 2017 and co-chaired by IGP Director Professor Henrietta Moore and Andrew Percy, the idea focuses on a whole-systems approach to public services at the local level, looking at the intersections between multiple forms of insecurity and deprivation that people experience in their everyday lives.
UBS would help to build a solid foundation from which people can thrive, drive place-based change and be resilient in the face of the next wave of social, economic and structural transformations within the economy, such as data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and climate change.
Information
Education
Legal Services
Shelter
Food
Care
Transport
“If we are to increase social cohesion, provide an adequate safety net and secure people’s livelihoods, we must transform our existing welfare system for the 21st century challenges including the cost of living, climate change and automation.”
Prof. Henrietta L. Moore
Founder and Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity
“The status quo is not working. The existing system does not secure people’s livelihoods as it focuses on compensatory redistribution. Universal services are the way forward to a more productive and thriving society.”
Andrew Percy
Co-Chair of the IGP Social Prosperity Network
Our Pilots
Connecting Communities
This project aimed to improve digital inclusion in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets through a digital UBS pilot. The project was developed through a partnership between Poplar HARCA, the LETTA Trust, Tower Hamlets Council, and the East End Community Foundation, and forms part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Digital Inclusion Strategy.
Imagining a welfare state that supports secure livelihoods
Working in partnership with Camden Council we've brought together a deep understanding of the people and place of Camden and expert policy thinking to test what it could look like to bring the values and principles of UBS to life at a local level.
IGP and Camden Council
In collaboration with Camden Council we are working on a project to implement UBS pilots offering a package of services in different areas of the UK.
The project is part of rethinking the welfare system with new 21st century place-based welfare settlements.
Details to follow…