Today (Wednesday 8 May), Big Issue Group has issued an open letter to Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and other political leaders calling for five urgent and essential poverty prevention policies to be implemented by whoever emerges victorious in the upcoming General Election.
1 in 5 people in the UK live in poverty[1]. There are a reported 14 million people struggling to meet their most basic needs, including 4 million children. Over the past 30 years, there has been the biggest increase in child poverty since records began.[2]
The Big Issue Group has demanded an end to this crisis, with their letter recommending a number of key changes the next government can implement within their first year of office in order to dismantle poverty.
The five policies are built around the five strategic pillars that the organisation has put in place in order to dismantle poverty and to change lives through enterprise.
The poverty prevention policies outlined in the open letter are:
- Build more social and affordable housing, and commit to providing high-quality public services and infrastructure as part of the build.
- Provide universal free school meals to all school-age children, including outside of term-time.
- Replace the increasingly punitive job-seeker benefits system, with back to work support mentorship, confidence building and realistic routes to sustainable employment.
- Outlaw high-interest credit and loans, and ensure access to affordable, equitable and fair replacements.
- Invest in reskilling workers in green energy, using the Just Transition criteria.
Big Issue Group believes this multi-faceted approach to reinventing systems at the heart of government is the only route to dismantle poverty for good.
