We've brought together 50 organisations to tell the Prime Minister: don't overlook one of our country's greatest untapped assets.
Fair Vote UK and 49 other organisations from across civil society have written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham with a simple message: the expertise you need to deliver lasting change already exists. Use it.
Our open letter is signed by groups including the Electoral Reform Society, Make Votes Matter, Refugee Action, The Jo Cox Foundation, Unlock Democracy, Turn2us and the Autonomy Institute. Together we work on democracy, economic justice, climate, housing, health, racial justice, disability rights, violence against women and girls, poverty, transparency and online safety.
The Prime Minister has spoken about hope, renewal and doing politics differently. Millions of people responded to that message -- but a new government can't tackle problems at their roots by starting from a blank sheet of paper, not when so much knowledge already exists outside Whitehall.
For fifteen years, while governments have come and gone, we haven't stood still. We've researched the evidence, listened to people with lived experience, piloted solutions, built coalitions and learnt what works and what doesn't. We've done it with small teams, limited resources and a funding environment that gets harder every year.
We are practitioners, researchers and policy specialists who understand that good policy has to be politically achievable, economically credible and deliverable, and who also know when the country can't afford to wait.
But we have to be honest about how things work now. We're regularly asked by departments, agencies and regulators for research, evidence and events, and we give our time freely. Too often, that engagement is "episodic rather than strategic: consultation rather than collaboration". Warm words from Whitehall, and slow action. A ministerial appearance at a stakeholder event is not meaningful engagement.
It's time for something better. A government committed to systemic change should see civil society not as a noisy irritant, but as a critical friend and enabler in delivery. Government brings democratic legitimacy and the authority to act. We bring expertise, lived experience, trusted relationships and long institutional memory. Together, those strengths are far greater than either can achieve alone.
To be clear, this is not an offer to criticise from the sidelines. It is an offer to help with hope. We want this government to succeed, not because success belongs to one party or one Prime Minister, but because the country needs it to succeed.
The challenges facing the UK are too big for any government to face alone. We are ready to offer our expertise, and Fair Vote Founder and Executive Director, Kyle Taylor, invites the Prime Minister, his ministers and his officials to continue the conversation in the months ahead.
The letter has been covered by Third Sector and Charity Times, which reported on the call for Government to treat civil society as a "critical friend".
Read the full letter and list of signatories below.
