The Sharing Economy as a movement
How Businesses can take part in the Sharing Economy
How the Government should be supporting the Sharing Economy
What can the local authorities do to support the UK in leading the Sharing Economy?
On a more local scale to central government, it should be the duty of local authorities to optimise the participation and amount of resources openly available in their community.
What could your local government do for you?
Recently in a paper published by Debbie Wosskow, it was made clear that in order for the UK to allow itself to become a collaborative economy, we must “Unlock the Sharing Economy” (Wosskow, 2014).
To view the paper, click here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unlocking-the-sharing-economy-independent-review
So how should the local authorities respond in order to move forward?
Renting out government space
The local authorities should give the public access to facilities which aren’t being used, such as town halls, sports centres and meeting places.
“The government should simplify the registration process for Space for Growth to remove the requirement for security vetting in buildings where this is not necessary. The online booking system should also be improved – making it as easy as possible to book government space”, (Sharp, 2014).
Co-working spaces
The local authorities should be looking to work with companies such as “CentralWorking” and “Hubble” , as well as 9 other sharing economy businesses in the UK currently connecting the public who need office space, with companies who have free office space.
Find them here: http://www.compareandshare.com/sharing-economy-directory/
Travel
In Wosskows paper, she talks about the government using car clubs such as “Co-wheels Car Club” and “City Car Club”, but as a subscription model similar to that of the “Barclays Bike Hire” model, perhaps in partnership with the Oyster card. This would be a fantastic addition to the Sharing Economy in the UK, if all local authorities implemented car club subscription models in commonly used areas, to reduce in the cost of people buying cars, and actually promote the use of car hire and ride sharing.
“Shared mobility service providers would be better served by finding ways to collaborate with local governments if they want to achieve long-term viability. Not only would this entail adhering to regulations in areas such as vehicle and driver safety requirements but also seeking to optimize the citizen and environmental goals to achieve active city support”, (Cohen & Boyd, 2014).
Linking to this, once it is accepted by central government, the local authorities in the UK should allow residential, and non-residential properties to rent their parking spaces to these car clubs and other members of the public, instead of paying the premium of inner city parking.
Leeds is a primary example of a city who would flourish benefit massively from the Sharing Economy. Being close to Leeds Bradford airport, residents could rent their unused parking spaces to members of the public who need to leave their vehicle for a lengthy amount of time whilst they are away. The local authorities could support Sharing Economy businesses such as “Just Park”, “Your Parking Space”, and “spareground” to name but a few businesses who offer parking services to the public. To see what the BBC have to say about the recent success of Just Park, click here.
Rewards
‘Time banking’, is another term referred to in Wosskows paper. Local authorities should be supporting those who give their time to their community. Time Banking, allows these people to use their hours given to the community as a form of currency, such as programmes like “Echo”. This token economy means for your hour banked for reading to the elderly for example, you can have your grass cut for an hour by someone who is also part of a ‘time banking’ scheme, and this should be supported.
References
- Wosskow, D. (2014). Unlocking the Sharing Economy.
- Cohen, Boyd; Kietzmann, Jan; Organization and Environment, September 2014, Vol. 7, No. 3.
- Sharp, D. (2014). New Report: Unlocking the UK Sharing Economy. [online] Shareable. Available at: http://www.shareable.net/blog/new-report-unlocking-the-uk-sharing-economy [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].