Grange Big Local in East Finchley and Big Local Central Jarrow have led two years of community consultation to design a basic income pilot in their areas.

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.

As a result, in June 2023, we launched a Big Local Basic Income pilot proposal. The full proposal is available here. The proposal received widespread media coverage both in the UK and overseas, with a full list available on our media coverage page, available here. The proposal is summarised below, and we are now seeking funding for both the cash transfers and evaluation. Please contact project PI Professor Matthew Johnson at matthew7.johnson@northumbria.ac.uk if you have any questions.

The pilot model:

• 15 people in Jarrow and 15 people in Grange, East Finchley receive a basic income of £1,600 a month for two years.
• Researchers will work with the people getting these payments to understand the difference they make to their lives.
• This research and these people’s stories are used to make the case for a national basic income and more comprehensive trials to fully understand the potential of a basic income in the UK. This pilot would ensure evaluation materials work and produce valuable primary data that can be used for further research in the short term.
• The pilot would also recruit a control group. This group would not receive basic income payments but would do questionnaires, focus groups and interviews as part of the pilot evaluation to understand the difference in experience between people receiving a basic income and people not. The people in this group would be paid for their time.
• Validated evaluation measures for the pilot would be drawn from the Northumbria University team’s existing protocol resource. This process would involve co-production with communities. We therefore do not propose a specific research protocol for evaluation of impacts of the basic income pilots at this stage, but the existing protocol resource provides clear indications of robust methods. A mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods that have been validated and received ethical approval at universities is recommended.
• All outputs should be produced in consultation with community members, with reports designed to be as accessible as possible. It may be advisable to include design costs for easy-read versions of reports. Co-authorship should be offered to community members providing substantive input. All formal community involvement should be remunerated at Northumbria University research assistance rates (currently £17.19 per hour though in equivalent vouchers where appropriate for DWP purposes) or on the basis of in-kind support.

Estimated budget:

• Basic income payments: £1.152 million
• Evaluation activities with control group: £20,000 – £40,000
• Research team: £290,000
• Administrative team: £60,000
• Community support team: £120,000
• Total: £1.642 – 1.662 million
  

The key concerns that came out of the community consultation were the risk to participants, including how payments would interact with taxes and existing benefits, potential for tensions within the community, and how participants could transition into and out of the pilot. These need to be carefully managed, in collaboration with the community, throughout the pilot. Finally, communication of findings must be agreed with the communities to ensure that perspectives are not misreported or misinterpreted and that communities are able to ‘tell their own story’.