The Government has been urged to ‘level up’ social capital in order to ensure community resilience, leaders from 20 councils have said.
In an open letter to secretary of state for levelling up Michael Gove, the council leaders warn the socio-economic hit from the pandemic is likely to place an additional strain on community relations.
The 20 councils were all identified as being most at risk of social division due to the pandemic in a report from HOPE not Hate published earlier this week.
The letter states: 'With the recovery process underway, the government faces difficult choices. It is vital that the decisions taken consider the strength of communities, as well as raw indicators of growth and prosperity. We need to ‘level up’ social capital as well as economic capital. And we need to ‘build back better’ when it comes to civic infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure.'
The letter sets out five ways the Government could support these councils including a focus on places and people, investment in integration, giving communities a stronger voice, a plan for economic and demographic change, and leading for resilient growth.
The letter adds: 'Given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on community relations – and the scale of the forthcoming challenges for community resilience – it is essential that ‘building back better’ is also ‘building back resilient’.
