By David Burrowes MP

It is a largely unspoken, but remarkable legacy of the Cameron project that all of the candidates set to replace him as Prime Minister have put social justice somewhere near the top of their ‘to do’ list for Government.

Social justice is a cause which unites and defines colleagues from all parts and intakes of the Parliamentary Party. 

A will for change will not be enough on its own. It will demand a Prime Minister who has thought clearly about how they will improve life chances. It will require a capacity to drive reform through the Government machine and across the country into the deep recesses of entrenched poverty.

We cannot allow the next few weeks to become only an outline of different Brexit negotiating positions. We also cannot allow the leadership contest to be an internal debate concerned about ourselves.

We must be driven by a concern for others, for the forgotten, for the disadvantaged, for the dispossessed.

So the gauntlet is thrown down to the final two presenting their case to 150,000 Conservative Party members - will you rise above the fray and set out your plans for social justice and reform?

By Patrick Spencer

Whilst all eyes are on a future negotiation of our place in Europe, an even bigger negotiation faces the next Prime Minister - healing the large divisions that underpinned the referendum result.​

Many Brexit voters expressed frustration at feeling left behind and seeing things getting tougher for them and their children. They live in communities directly affected by pressure on schooling, health services and wages.

We've seen 52% of the electorate vote against the status quo. Many of these people have not voted in elections for years, but saw this as a chance to have their voice heard. Westminster politicans must take these concerns seriously and turn to the all-important task of healing a divided country and bring the hopes and aspirations of the 48% and 52% back togther.

The '48:52' Project:

Earlier this week the Centre for Social Justice and Legatum Institute announced a new project to examine why Britain voted the way it did on 23rd June.

The ‘48:52’ Project will provide a roadmap to help the next Prime Minister heal a divided nation and will be published in advance of the new Prime Minister being appointed in early September.

The report will seek to provide a robust analysis of what the vote to leave the EU told us about the state of our nation; explain the opportunities and risks facing a post Brexit Britain and produce totemic policy ideas for the next Prime Minister to help people move from poverty to prosperity.

If you are interested in providing evidence to support this project please email CSJ.Director@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk

By Amelia Abplanalp

Earlier this year, the Centre for Social Justice called for a far-reaching overhaul of existing poverty measures. Our report, Improving Life Chances, set out to fundamentally change the way we view poverty, and just as importantly how we measure Government work in this area.

We argued that it is not until we develop a clear set of measurements that we will begin to have an effective national conversation on reducing poverty and improving life chances.

Earlier this week, the Cabinet Office announced a new £80 million Life Chances Fund to provide payment-by-results contracts for locally developed projects by socially minded investors. This Fund will leverage new money into the projects to tackle our most entrenched social issues through Social Impact Bonds.

Tucked away within this announcement was the launch of a new centre to measure new approaches to some of our biggest social problems.

Last week, Philippa Stroud set the new Prime Minster three big social justice challenges, one of which was to think clearly about how sucess or failure in reducing poverty can be measured. This is no fringe issue. As the old saying goes, what is measured is delivered.

The next Prime Minister should build on this work and go further, articulating a clear set of poverty fighting measurements and make them legally binding on Government.

Family Stability missing from list of funding rounds:

The roll out of Social Impact Bonds is a welcome innovation.

Amongst the six 'themes' set to recieve new investment one area is conspicuous by its absence: family breakdown. An area that costs Government an estimated £47billion deserves its place on the list and the CSJ will be calling for it to be included in a future round of funding.

Expressions of interest for funding from the Life Chances Fund for children’s services and drug and alcohol dependency projects are currently open.

CSJ Report: Improving Life Chances