Every day, people run into what the finance expert Martin Lewis calls “the life-potholes of unintended consequences” – clunky systems and poorly conceived rules that make life harder than it should be. His latest project, the Small Ideas Initiative, will attempt to address that, with a cross-party panel of politicians and policymakers crowdsourcing ideas for everyday fixes to take to government. The ideas could cover anything from health and schools to policing, tech and money.
Lewis is encouraging people to submit ideas for “practical, low-cost, non-controversial ways to improve the UK” before 12 November. Mackenzie, who was director of policy to Nick Clegg during his deputy premiership, says the initiative could be an avenue to regaining trust in public institutions. Mackenzie will sit on the panel, which will choose about 50 ideas to take to the government, councils and regulators.
Alongside Lewis, the initiative is run by the innovation charity Nesta and the public participation charity Involve. The Reform MP Danny Kruger, the former Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt, and the Labour mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, are among those sitting on the panel alongside Mackenzie. She said the group had “a real interest and capability in getting involved and sweating the small stuff”.
The ideas they are looking for will be “no-brainers” that are not party-political and would be easy fixes. Mackenzie said a good example was when she and Lewis first set up the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and discovered through a survey that GPs had been charging to fill out debt and mental health evidence forms. In 2019, two years after the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute started its campaign, the law changed.
Before the initiative’s launch, people in north London shared the policies they would consider submitting. Clare, a railway worker, suggested the government should increase rubbish collections during heatwaves, saying her bins had been “a buffet for flies” this summer. Mark, who works on a market stall, said he would ask the government to put more bins in and around train stations.
I know it’s for security reasons, but I think they could find a way,” he said. Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner who will also sit on the deciding panel, said relatively small changes could make a “massive difference”.
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