The Government has published an action plan aimed at strengthening community cohesion and resilience across the UK.
The strategy seeks to address rising divisions and social pressures, including hate crime and extremism, by promoting shared values and community connectedness.
The plan – titled Protecting What Matters – emphasises the importance of local engagement and outlines measures designed to bring people together around common interests and strengthen social bonds.
It argues that changes in technology, demographics and economic pressures have strained community relations, which extremists and other states seek to exploit.
The Government says the initiative will set expectations for integration and mutual respect while tackling those who seek to divide neighbourhoods.
Secretary of state for communities Steve Reed will tell the House of Commons: ‘This plan is what patriotism means to this Government. We choose to celebrate our national successes and historic achievements, we choose to come together in the best of times and the worst of times, and we choose to take on those who try to divide us.’
Key elements include enhanced action against extremist influence, increased support for community led school linking projects, and stronger oversight of home education to ensure children benefit from shared civic experiences.
An annual State of Extremism report will monitor trends and will focus in particular on Islamism, the extreme right, and the extreme left.
The Government will also adopt a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility that focuses on hostility towards individuals rather than beliefs, and will do more to tackle antisemitism in schools, colleges and the healthcare system.
The announcement also builds on existing investment programmes such as the £5.8bn Pride in Place fund, aimed at empowering local people to shape improvements in their areas.
Commenting on the publication, Kelly Fowler, Belong CEO, said: ‘Local authorities and civil society organisations across the UK are already playing their role to bring people together across difference and build connection and cohesion, often in extremely challenging circumstances. This plan recognises that work and makes important commitments to strengthen their hand and Belong will continue playing our role to support delivery.’
Shabir Randeree CBE, chair of the British Muslim Trust said: ‘The definition published today is welcomed and should be a step forward that will help guide institutions that have too often been too slow or too weak in their responses to incidents a tolerant and respectful country like ours must never accept.’
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews: ‘We welcome the new government plan to confront extremism and build social cohesion, including specific measures set out to tackle antisemitism wherever and however it manifests, and the commitment to address the sources of ideological extremism through which antisemitism is spreading.’
Check out: Pride in Place: Breathing new life into neglected communities and Is immigration making the UK an ‘island of strangers’?
