Britain is a society increasingly divided between the super-affluent and the impoverished. A Sharing Economy proposes radical new ways to close the growing income gap and spread social opportunities.

Drawing on overseas examples, Stewart Lansley argues that mobilising the huge financial potential of Britain’s public assets could pay for a pioneering new social wealth fund. Such a fund would boost economic and social investment, and, by building the social asset base, simultaneously strengthen the public finances.

A powerful new policy tool, such funds would ensure that more of the gains from economic activity are shared by all and not colonised by a powerful few. This is a vital new contribution to the pressing debate on how to reduce inequality and combat austerity.

“This book is about a concept that I think will be a fundamental building block of a new people-centred economy, but that has hardly been explored‚ indeed this is the first book on the subject‚ the idea is ‘Social Wealth Funds’. Stewart offers a bold solution to help with some of our most pressing economic problems. As well as the theoretical basis for Social Wealth Funds and how they differ from Sovereign Wealth Funds he takes us on a journey through the practical steps to how they could be created in the UK. He also shows how they could re-shape our economy for the better by balancing the books, provide funding and reduce inequality.”
— Duncan McCann