Positive thinking

Katy Jones, Manchester Metropolitan University One in every 200 people in Britain is homeless – sleeping on the streets or stuck in temporary accommodation, including hostels and B&Bs, according to analysis from housing charity Shelter. But it might surprise you to know that despite not having a secure home, a small but significant proportion of people experiencing homelessness are in paid employment. Getting a job is often presented as a solution to getting people off the streets. Indeed, former prime minister Theresa May, in a speech about tackling homelessness, said : Dealing with homelessness…is about more than just accommodation…the key thing is ensuring people can be in work and can be earning and not find themselves in that situation. But work does not always offer a route out of poverty – and many people who are in work continue to face housing insecurity . Indeed, a recent analysis from the housing charity Shelter found that 55% of families in temporar...

Koldo Casla, Newcastle University   The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, is in the UK on an official UN mission . He is meeting with civil society groups, academics, public authorities and above all with people living in poverty and dealing with the consequences of years of austerity. Alston, an independent expert from Australia, is seeking evidence on poverty, inequality and the effect of austerity on local government funding. This official UN visit takes place at a critical juncture for the 66m people living on these islands. With Brexit’s bridge to nowhere in sight, Britons have been promised “the end of austerity” by their prime minister. However, think tanks such as the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies agree that the recent budget from the chancellor of the exchequer is far from an end to austerity, and that uncertainty about the future relationship with the EU leaves all financial prospect...

Karen Rowlingson, University of Birmingham Michael Sheen has just launched the End High Cost Credit Alliance . The actor has supported various charitable causes over the years and is now leading this effort to support alternatives to high cost credit which has increased in recent years, not least in his home town of Port Talbot. The alliance was formed in response to the fact that those on the lowest incomes pay the most to borrow money even where they are borrowing for essentials. This is compared to those on higher incomes who can generally borrow at lower rates for luxuries like holidays and high-end consumer goods. The alliance aims to debate the changes needed to deliver healthy credit, offer solutions, and provide the resources to test them out locally and at scale across the UK. It also collectively calls for changes to policy, regulation and practices to make credit fairer for all. This is a growing problem. Research by colleagues and myself at the Centre for ...