Camden Council has recently published a landmark report with support and guidance from UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Founding Director Professor Mariana Mazzucato and other IIPP experts. The report details four missions and a place-based approach to mission-oriented innovation policymaking that have been discussed and agreed by Camden Council’s Cabinet, comprised of the Leader of the Council and nine other councillors.
In Camden – the geographic home of UCL and IIPP – stark inequalities were rampant long before the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns began. The Borough is home to some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in London and the country, side by side with globally renowned research centres such as the Alan Turing or Francis Crick Institute and headquarters of multinational companies like YouTube and Google.
As Covid-19 struck in Spring 2020, Councillor Georgia Gould, Leader of the London Borough of Camden and Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Founding Director of IIPP, began discussing how Camden might harness the public sector’s power to cultivate entrepreneurialism to reshape a more socially equitable, economically inclusive and environmentally sustainable borough out of the pandemic. To mobilise and guide this strategic process, Camden Council established the Renewal Commission that met over a nine-month period and brought together 16 community leaders, co-chaired by Gould and Mazzucato.
Following the Camden Renewal Commission’s final meeting in May 2021, the Council spent several months internally exploring how it would take forward the Commission’s recommendations. This process culminated in the recent publication of the Renewal Commission report, which outlines how the Council will work with diverse stakeholders to achieve the four key missions recommended by the Commission:
Four key missions
- By 2030, those holding positions of power in Camden are as diverse as our community - and the next generation is ready to follow
- By 2025, every young person has access to economic opportunity that enables them to be safe and secure
- By 2030, everyone eats well every day with nutritious, affordable, sustainable food
- By 2030, Camden’s estates and their neighbourhoods are healthy, sustainable and unlock creativity
Co-chair of the Camden Renewal Commission and Founding Director of IIPP, Mariana Mazzucato said of Camden’s missions report:
The pandemic has made clear why policymakers globally must challenge how public value is imagined, understood, produced and evaluated. This new report asserts a bold vision for how public value can be realised to create fairer and healthier, more sustainable and inclusive outcomes for people, communities and organisations. I’ve been inspired by working with Council Leader Georgia Gould and we are excited to continue our work with Camden.
In the coming months, IIPP will continue working with Camden on the delivery of its four missions through projects that will be taking place throughout the coming year and continue to collaborate through the new IIPP Policy Lab, funded by the Laudes Foundation.
Further information:
- Visit the Camden Renewal Commission website
- Visit the We Make Camden website
- Find out more on our work with Camden's Missions for a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable borough
- London's Recovery plan has also taken on IIPP's mission-oriented approach
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