Never has there been a more crucial time for a new social contract between UK citizens and the state.

People have had enough of empty words, of divisive culture wars, of a staged rhetoric that fails to connect with the reality of their lives.

Behind the landslide Labour victory on 4 July and a majority of 174 seats, was the lowest General Election turnout for 20 years. Less than 60% of the UK registered population exercised their right to vote.

Many felt alienated, disconnected from traditional political parties; many did not know who to vote for, having lost faith in politicians and in the state, with many voting for populist ‘anti-politicians'.

Local government not only has a huge role to play in the essential rebuilding of a new social contract between the public and public servants, it is something we are uniquely positioned to do.

The social contract between citizen and state has worn thin over recent years. It has been stretched to breaking point by the hypocrisy of those who partied during a global pandemic, awarded lucrative contracts to their friends while setting stringent rules for the general population, let them down with false Brexit promises and trashed the economy in 40 days.

Simultaneously, people have seen how public sector organisations can circle the wagons to deflect from poor leadership: Lucy Letby, Wayne Couzens, contaminated blood. These tragedies have served to fuel an increasing lack of trust in authority and in public service.

I inherited an obsession with how people feel about government from my trade union activist dad and listening to family, friends and neighbours recently about their views, on how they really feel about public services. Things have most definitely changed.

People do not want to be done to any longer. They want to have an active role in their communities, have more of a say, not just to be consulted, but to be active in the building of a new future.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised an era of ‘service' to citizens rather than the chaos, drama and self-serving behaviours of the previous 14 years.

In his first speech as Prime Minister he promised the Government would ‘tread more lightly in peoples' lives'. We could be witnessing the beginning of a shift in the social contract. This could herald the start of a more equal partnership, a move away from the transactional parent-child relationship we have endured.

Local government not only has a huge role to play in the essential rebuilding of a new social contract between the public and public servants, it is something we are uniquely positioned to do.

People connect deeply with the place in which they live, where they raise their families, where they build connections with their neighbours, where communities come together despite the culture wars that have been stoked over recent years to distract attention away from bad decisions and bad government.

Your local council is where national government decisions drill right down to communities and impact on people's lives. Local government is where the tyres of democracy hit the road.

In Wigan, when we created The Wigan Deal, we worked intensively as a team across all council departments with partners in the Police, NHS, local businesses, the Department for Work and Pensions, housing associations and community organisations, to broker a new social contract with citizens. It took years to build the trust and confidence of communities, but we were committed to getting the right balance, to approach the task of radical, preventative place leadership with a bold humility.

Councillors, particularly the council leader, and the amazing staff and partners, were really up for trying something different, discarding the paternalistic transactional relationship to one of shared skin in the game; an equal and mutually respectful beneficial partnership.

The role of the council in a place is pivotal to the success of that place.

Imagine if we brokered a new social contract in each council area. We could:

• Start to reset the relationship with the public from one of telling to one of listening and agreeing a way forward together.
• Do the same with the workforce.
• Agree with partners what a new radical place leadership framework (rather than the traditional silo organisational model) could achieve.
• Start with the person – not the service in all multi-agency service design.
• Discover what citizens really think of their public services and begin to address issues and misconceptions – resetting the relationship one conversation at a time.
• Invest in prevention by building on the assets in local neighbourhoods.
• Trust local community organisations to deliver and invest in them. Give them more power and resources – they will not let you down.
• Create genuinely integrated place-based neighbourhood teams, wrapping seamless services around people, not organisations. Cut out waste and duplication in the hand-offs between agencies where considerable resources are spent with no positive impact on citizens.
• Admit when we get things wrong.

Imagine if government, councils, NHS, police, Department for Work and Pensions, all started to work like this; not as a time-limited pilot project like Total Place, but as the default setting for how we work together as part of a new social contract with citizens.

Donna Hall, CBE is former chief executive of Wigan MBC and non-executive director of Mutual Ventures

X– @Profdonnahall