With Article 50 triggered, British voters had to brace themselves for Brexit after a referendum campaign which had not framed the key issues or articulated the choices for our increasingly disunited kingdom. So here is an antidote, a working paper from foundationaleconomy.com researchers which explains how we could and should make Brexit work by reorganising the foundational economy which provides essential goods and services to every household. When Theresa May called an oppurtunist general election in 2017, she promised “an economy that works for everyone“ and Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the oppasition campaigned for a “ fairer society” This working paper sketches a route map for how to deliver on these objectives. The working paper is available here.

On the 8th of March 2017 the Welsh Assembly held a 60 minute debate on the foundational economy. Four Labour members proposed a motion which “Calls on the Welsh Government to develop a strategy to maximise the impact of the foundational economy across Wales as part of its work on developing a new economic strategy.” This attracted cross party support from Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives, and the Economy Minister, Ken Skates, then responded positively. Watch the debate here.

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In March 2017 we published the most recent in a series of public interest reports which have attracted considerable public attention. The new report Coming Back Capability and Precarity in UK Textiles and Apparel develops a distinctive analysis of firm capability and emphasises the importance of supportive ecological conditions. The practical implication is that a large scale reshoring of garment production is not going to happen, but, that there is much to be done in supporting small and medium firms and policing competition from firms who are not paying minimum wages.