Get your voice heard in Parliament

Right to repair: policy & activism
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Originally published at: https://therestartproject.org/right-to-repair/get-your-voice-heard-in-parliament/

At Restart, we’ve long imagined a world where repair offers an easy way to save money, pick up useful skills and do our bit for the planet. And while we’re already building that future, fixing our throwaway economy requires our policymakers to step up too.

There is some hope here! We’re hearing that the long awaited Circular Economy Growth Plan is due to be published in the next few weeks. This would be great timing: next month we’re going back to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. We’re bringing representatives from community repair groups across the whole of the UK to speak with MPs about why repair matters and what they can do to help.

What are we calling for?

We want MPs to sign our Repair and Reuse Declaration, which calls for specific policies that could make repair and reuse more accessible for all of us. From expanding our Right to Repair to making repair more affordable, these policies enjoy overwhelming support from the British public and have been endorsed by well over 500 businesses, community groups and political figures.

We asked the UK public which government policies they would support to keep electrical products in use for longer: Expand the Right to Repair to make more spare parts, tools and repair info available (85% strongly support or tend to support; 12% don't know; 4% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Fund repair training & accreditation to encourage more people to learn repair skills and create jobs (85% strongly support or tend to support; 10% don't know; 5% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Introduce targets for reuse to prioritise reuse over recycling and reuse more products (83% strongly support or tend to support; 12% don't know; 5% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Scrap VAT on repairs and parts to make repair services and spare parts cheaper for everyone (80% strongly support or tend to support; 13% don't know; 6% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Introduce repair scores for products to understand how repairable products are at point of purchase (80% strongly support or tend to support; 14% don't know; 6% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Offer vouchers for repair to lower the cost of repair, paid for by manufacturers (79% strongly support or tend to support; 14% don't know; 7% tend to oppose or strongly oppose).
We asked the UK public which government policies they would support to keep electrical products in use for longer: Expand the Right to Repair to make more spare parts, tools and repair info available (85% strongly support or tend to support; 12% don't know; 4% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Fund repair training & accreditation to encourage more people to learn repair skills and create jobs (85% strongly support or tend to support; 10% don't know; 5% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Introduce targets for reuse to prioritise reuse over recycling and reuse more products (83% strongly support or tend to support; 12% don't know; 5% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Scrap VAT on repairs and parts to make repair services and spare parts cheaper for everyone (80% strongly support or tend to support; 13% don't know; 6% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Introduce repair scores for products to understand how repairable products are at point of purchase (80% strongly support or tend to support; 14% don't know; 6% tend to oppose or strongly oppose). Offer vouchers for repair to lower the cost of repair, paid for by manufacturers (79% strongly support or tend to support; 14% don't know; 7% tend to oppose or strongly oppose).640×460 109 KB
The five policy priorities we’re calling for are all incredibly popular with Brits.

This should be a no-brainer.

And we are making progress. Ninety MPs have already signed the Declaration. And last year, we helped persuade the Government’s Circular Economy Taskforce to include electrical products in their considerations for the upcoming Circular Economy Growth Plan.

Now we’re aiming to reach 100 signed up MPs and encourage as many as possible to drop by our event in Parliament. Can you help?

Invite your local MP

Please consider using our simple tool below to send an email to your MP, inviting them to the Parliamentary Repair Café. It takes less than a minute and we’ve even written a template that you can adjust. If you haven’t heard back from them after a week, please consider giving their office a phone call, it’ll go a long way:

 

https://therestartproject.org/campaigns/repair-reuse-declaration/

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Featured photo: Mark A Phillips

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Thank you to the team for organising this again this year. I am excited to represent Repair Cafe Gosport this year. In previous years, others have told me how good this event was, and I am looking forward to taking part.

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My first time at Parliament and looking forward to representing the Staffordshire Moorlands

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I’m really glad you can both come Keith and Mike! We’ve got a much bigger space this year, so it should be a fun one! I won’t be there myself, but you’ll be in good hands with Holly, Fiona and one or two others from the team.

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