How well did the Flatpack Democracy 2021 campaign do? This report shows it’s still a better future for citizens than traditional politics
We’re happy to publish this research note on the impact of the Flatpack Democracy 2021 campaign (we covered it extensively on this site), based on interviewing Flatpack candidates in that year’s local elections. It’s generally a hopeful picture of a political force with great potential for capaciousness and connecting across other movements and parties. Thanks to Dr Amy Burnett for sharing.
AMY BURNETT on “The Flatpack democracy 2021 campaign - how well did it do?”
I have a longstanding interest in monitoring, evaluating and researching political innovation, as a route to effective climate action. This led me to volunteer to carry out a survey on the Flatpack Democracy 2021 Campaign.
The Flatpack Democracy 2021 Campaign called itself a “decentralised campaign to support thousands of non-party community councillors to win seats in council elections in May 2021, directing them to the resources/information to run a successful campaign”.
They were thinking big: to achieve “every council election in May 2021 is won by an independent community-led group”. The Campaign was building on the gains made in Frome (Somerset), where the Flatpack movement was started in 2011. Since then, the Independents for Frome have controlled the town council and have had two ‘full-house’ wins in 2015 and 2019.
I was very fortunate that Peter Macfadyen - who co-founded the Independents for Frome (IfF), and later set up ‘Flatpack Democracy’– opened the door to Frome being my case study for my PhD research.
My intent was to explore the links between community-led planning (through plan-making tools such as Neighbourhood Plans), local (independent) politics and innovative, radical forms of placemaking. How did these different ‘transition arenas’ come together, or not, to achieve effective environmental outcomes?
Hearing that Flatpack was gearing towards a national campaign was really exciting. It was a chance to understand how it was scaling-up and what were the key opportunities and challenges in doing so. It was also an opportunity to explore more about whether independent councillors had a greater connection to environmental groups. Or if they were lobbying their councils on climate and ecological emergencies.
The Flatpack Democracy 2021 Campaign survey was aimed at
Those who put themselves forward as a candidate or were elected as independent councillors at different levels of government
Those who supported the Flatpack Democracy 2021 campaign or the election of independent candidates
Those who are interested in Flatpack Democracy and have engaged with its content (e.g. read the books, attended Flatpack events) but who may not have (yet) put themselves forward as a councillor or formally got involved in Flatpack activities
The survey had six sections (some optional) including: people’s knowledge and experience of Flatpack, governance of their group, climate emergencies and ties to environmental groups and party-political membership.
Responses were collected between May-June 2021 and in total 35 people responded (so it's not representative of the full cohort of independent councillors across the country, but it gives us a good sense of the character of the Flatpack movement in the UK, though admittedly mainly England).
For more information on the administrative make up of English councils there’s a great summary on the Local Government Information Unit website or there’s more on the Gov.uk site.
Who responded and what does it tell us about the Flatpack movement?
Most of the respondents were in the 51-60 age category, however, there was also a good representation of younger respondents aged between 31-40. There were no respondents under the age of 30 – suggesting that the movement has yet to encourage younger people to stand as a councillor. But compared to the average age of councillors being 59 (according to a National Association of Local Councils study), it's actually quite a good indicator Flatpack might be reaching a younger population.
Most of those responding were from South-West England (a figure of 62% out of 34 responses). There was significantly less representation in other regions of England, two respondents from Wales and none from other areas of the UK.
While these survey results are not representative of all the potential candidates and elected councillors within the broader Flatpack movement, the results do indicate there is a very strong white ethnic bias of those currently involved (all respondents were White British).
The results also indicate that women are more attracted than men to the Flatpack movement (63% female vs. 38% male; which is significantly more when compared to 40% women being represented in town and parish councils, according to a NALC survey).
Had Flatpackers had previous political engagement before?
A large proportion of respondents had been an elected councillor before (56%). This indicates that there is a solid amount of political capital that can navigate (and possibly circumvent) the political system within the emerging movement.
Most people had been a councillor for less than five years, particularly at Parish and Town levels. Representation in higher tiers of government was more longstanding, between 5-15 years.
Why did they want to get involved in the Flatpack movement?
The most common reason why people were attracted to the Flatpack movement was that ‘the existing council had failed its constituents and needed shaking up’ which indicates a challenge taken up against the perceived ineffective local councils and poor representation at a local level. The second most common reasons were seeing Flatpack as a genuine alternative to party politics.
There was a high proportion of respondents who put themselves forward as a candidate after reading the original Flatpack Democracy (2014) publication, where 12 respondents put themselves forward. The effect of putting oneself forward was less than that of encouraging a friend and colleague to read it. There was also not a direct link of the Flatpack model to environmental or well-being outcomes.
Of those that were elected, notably those at the town council level, respondents were generally elected 'with a comfortable majority' or were 'way ahead of others'. This suggests that where independents do get elected, they are 'pushing at an open door' – either through the attractiveness of the candidate or the offer of a new beyond party-politics model. Of those that weren't elected, this was generally spread across the different tiers of government.
Suggestions on what else could be done to encourage Flatpack
The types of suggestions by respondents were varied but can be broadly categorised into the following overarching themes:
Satisfied with Flatpack’s existing approach
Communication and storytelling
Targeted approach to potential regions, tiers and councillors
Sharing of experience within Flatpack
Resources
Persuasion of party-political actors to do things differently
Why did they engage with the Flatpack 2021 Team?
Respondents were mainly interested in engaging with the Flatpack 2021 campaign to seek support to stand as a councillor, or to ignite a curiosity to know more. Some were specifically interested in the mentorship scheme, either looking for a mentor or being a mentor themselves. 1 respondent wanted to support the national campaign team directly.
What did the Flatpack Campaign Team do well and what could they have done better?
“I think the events Flatpack organises, the books, the emails, the WhatsApp groups, the Thursday evening catchups are all part of creating an inclusive environment where people can get the courage to try to make the change they desire to see”
Responses to this question can be broadly grouped as organising meetings and hosting other fora, (such as on Facebook, WhatsApp and Zoom meetings) and cultivating a supportive environment through the provision of support and information and the Flatpack 2021 mentorship scheme. Respondents described this type of support as “vital” and “inspiring” which linked like-minded people in a ”supportive and welcoming atmosphere”.
There were some general comments, where participants wanted to be more challenged in terms of scaling up and targeting specific audiences. One commented on wanting being better advertised in general, compared to having engagement with different social media platforms in equal measure.
In addition, focusing on regional campaigns (rather than having just a national or local focus) or targeting Unitary Authorities more were also suggested. Expanding from mentorship to in-house consultancy support was also seen as desirable by one respondent
What approaches were most effective in cultivating effective governance?
Overall, the most important governance tool used by elected councillors was the creation of Ways of Working to establish core principles and values in the group (among town councillors). However, no councillor (or group of councillors) had yet to formalise these in their Standing Orders.
Keeping meetings and governance light by meeting in more informal spaces was considered to help for 4 respondents (2 at district level, 2 at town council level). Taking a reflective approach was seen as valuable but only for two respondents (one metropolitan and one town council).
While nine respondents reported that the Flatpack model was delivering everything they thought it would, for others they struggled somewhat to replicate the basic ways of organising suggested in Flatpack materials (e.g. books) but this was not considered a significant disadvantage.
Are local councils linking to environmental movements, like transition towns?
While some town and parish councils, and one district council reported being ‘massively’ or ‘very much’ linked to these groups, in the main the distribution of responses tended to for weaker ties. Most town councils reported some sort of relationship to environmental groups but equally almost the same number reported slight or non-existent ties.
Most councillors were also a member of a community-based or interest group, only three respondents were not a member of another group. There was a strong presence of councillors and supporters of Flatpack in the environmental movement, including Extinction Rebellion, Transition Towns, other local environmental groups or social enterprises.
How effective are local councils at addressing climate emergencies?
Most councils that had declared climate and ecological emergencies seemed to be doing some related action to address these (such as promoting biodiversity through rewilding, improving local supply chains or funding local groups to take action).
Resisting perceived environmentally insensitive policies was also a way of acting. Some felt there was still a lack of urgency or policies were seen as inappropriate at higher levels of government (Unitary councils and above).
While most respondents indicated that independents were either massively or ‘very much’ involved in calling for a climate or ecological emergency in their councils, suggesting a link between some independent councillors and climate action, these links were not true for all councillors.
What’s the ‘political’ make-up of Flatpack?
The results of this question indicate that while some respondents were episodic members of a political party, they typically had not been committed to these parties. This suggests that independent politics may struggle to convert those with longstanding and more entrenched party-political views.
While there was some representation from voting for the Conservatives, in the main, respondents to this question didn't vote Conservative (69%). The most committed voting practices were for the Labour/Cooperative party, where previously 15% had always voted for this party, 20% most of the time, 20% about half the time and 30% as episodic votes. Only 15% had never voted for the Labour/Cooperative party.
Even more common was for respondents to vote Green, with only 6.25% never having voted Green before.
Differences between voting practices at national or lower tiers of government indicate that support for the Greens is more localised. This could affect potential coalitions between independent groups and Green councillors at higher tier local government level.
There was increased support for independent councillors at town and parish level compared to the national level, Unitary and District levels). This is likely because many are already independent at this level. It’s also due to a rise in Flatpack groups, such as those who responded to this survey.
So, what is the effect of Flatpack on local-level political transformation?
“Keep doing what you're doing - you lit a fire under us here and we're glad we got involved - we would NOT have without your support“
The survey results show a prominent “transmission effect” - meaning that knowledge sharing was stimulated, and people made transitions in their social roles, based on the ideas of Flatpack Democracy.
The fact that Flatpack seems to be reaching a younger and female audience is very promising. FP could be an attractor to a more intergenerational and innovative politics - one that transcends the traditional boundaries of older, male representatives in our political systems.
Also important is that many have had previous experience of working in political systems in some way as councillors. This provides useful ‘insider knowledge’ of how to navigate the system, as well as working with those who haven’t with fresh perspectives of what change might look like.
The efforts of the Flatpack Campaign team were widely acknowledged and appreciated by respondents in the way they cultivated a supportive environment.
So what next for the Flatpack Campaign team in future elections?
Continue to reach out to women
Make more targeted efforts to reach people of different ethnicities
Improve social media campaigning by knowing their audience for different platforms
Hold regional campaigns
Be more targeted at higher levels of government to communicate the benefits of independent politics beyond parish, town and district councils.
Where can I find the results of the survey?
You can find out more from the full research paper, avaiable on request.
Dr. Amy Burnett is a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Surrey’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability and a member of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity. The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of Amy’s Fellowship.