Agenda item

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

Decision:

(1) That approval be given for the Leader of the Council to send a letter, based on the draft letter set out in Appendix 2 to the report submitted to the Executive, to the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions asking government to consider reforms to the existing benefits system and highlighting this Council's desire to investigate UBI should the opportunity arise in the future.

(2) That the letter should:

(a) identify the potential for levelling up the inequalities in the borough, and in Surrey as a whole; and

(b) highlight that this Council would only wish to be involved in a fully funded trial of UBI.

(3) That no engagement be made with the local UBI Lab.

(4) That the draft letter be circulated to group leaders and that they be invited to sign the letter should they wish.

Reason:

To respond to the motion adopted by the Council on 13 April 2021.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

1. Carry out the actions detailed in the motion, in particular to send the letter proposed in Appendix 2 (with or without amendment) to various parties and engage with the local UBI lab

2. Do nothing

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

Minutes:

Universal Basic Income (UBI, Citizens’ Basic Income – CBI, or simply Basic Income) was an idea where a regular cash payment was made to every individual adult, without any reference to their other income or wealth and without any conditions. The core aim of the proposal was to reduce or eliminate poverty. The Welsh Government had committed to trials and the Scottish Government had invested in the feasibility of pilots. Several English cities were keen to test it out and had written letters in support of holding pilots in their areas and a number of political parties had included UBI trials in their election manifestos. There had been a Parliamentary debate on the matter on 13 October 2020 at which point the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions saw no benefit in moving from Universal Credit to UBI.

At the Council meeting on 13 April 2021, following consideration of a motion submitted by Councillor Steven Lee, the Council had agreed to ask the Executive to consider a choice of four actions to move forward the UBI proposal, one of which was potentially to seek funding for a trial in Guildford.

The report before the Executive provided further information on what UBI was, the consideration of UBI at government level to date and what the purpose of UBI labs were. The Leader of the Council introduced the report and reflected that although there had been no appetite at national level for UBI, the motion itself had received majority support by Council. The Leader felt disinclined to use council resources for what might be viewed as lobbying on a political matter.

Although there were UBI labs for Surrey and Guildford, it was unclear if these were run by the same teams and there was no contact available for the Council to research further. Such research, if undertaken, would require officer resource and there was no enthusiasm to make this commitment given the unknown amount of time this would take up. However, due to the level of support the original motion received at Council the Leader agreed to compose a hybrid version of the original letter drafted to the Government. The Executive,

RESOLVED: