Poverty in the UK is too high, and that costs us all. But with cross-societal action, underpinned by a strong social contract, we could completely eradicate deep poverty, and significantly reduce overall poverty in the UK. These are the key messages of the Poverty Strategy Commission which, after three years of work, launched its final report last week.
The role of - and benefits to - action from sub-national and local governments was a key theme throughout the Commission. Falling rates of poverty would ease pressure on housing budgets, homelessness services, children's services and public health budgets. The scale of these benefits could be significant. WPI Economic's recent work with Trussell highlighted some frightening estimates of the financial value of the costs currently associated with poverty.
None of this come as a surprise to readers of The MJ; through the course of the Commission's work, we heard repeatedly of the good work that is already taking place in local communities across the UK. Whether that is through income maximisation schemes, programmes to join up and redesign services or the provision of direct support to vulnerable children, adults and families, there is already an impressive focus on tackling poverty and hardship across local government.
The Commission also put forward a number of specific recommendations that would need to be taken forward by sub-national and local governments. Many of these are underpinned by the creation of an 'anti-poverty scorecard', which could be used to analyse the drivers of poverty at a local level and track progress so that lessons can be learned and best-practice more easily rolled out across the UK
So what more does the Commission suggest? At the heart of the Commission's argument is that, despite significant action from local, sub-national and national governments and civic society, we have collectively failed to move the dial on poverty. In fact, rates of poverty in the UK are the highest on record and the lived experiences of those in poverty are worsening - with mental and physical health deteriorating and the depth of poverty increasing. That means that more of the same is not going to work.
Meaningful change in poverty outcomes in the UK will only be successful if action is taken across all of society. That will mean bringing together and coordinating action from all levels of government, employers, civic society and people in poverty themselves. Importantly, this action needs to look beyond just incomes – focusing instead on how poverty can be tackled by reducing the costs of housing and other essentials, improving financial resilience and increasing health and wellbeing. Local governments have a key role to play in each of these areas.
Of course, that coordinated action is not going to be easy. That's why, for me, the biggest contribution of the Commission is the principle that the only way this can be achieved is through the creation of a strong and explicit social contract for the UK. This needs to show the actions needed and expected from all parts of society and the support (financial and otherwise) available from all levels of government that will come with the fulfilment of these expectations.
The Commission also put forward a number of specific recommendations that would need to be taken forward by sub-national and local governments. Many of these are underpinned by the creation of an 'anti-poverty scorecard', which could be used to analyse the drivers of poverty at a local level and track progress so that lessons can be learned and best-practice more easily rolled out across the UK. The Commission also called for a national target to increase benefit takeup to 95%, delivered by building on the programmes already run by local government, but with dedicated ring-fenced funding from central government. On housing, the Commission argued for a new target to ensure that no-one has to spend more than 30% of their income to meet their housing costs, with the hope that this would provide a way of better joining up national and local housing policy to drive an improvement in affordability. There were also recommendations to support the delivery of more social homes, the roll out of Housing First across the UK, ringfenced funding to cover local crisis support and the provision of support to those with no recourse to public funds, and central government investment in improvements in housing quality and energy efficiency in council housing stock.
And even then, that is not all that is going to be needed. The Commission highlighted the importance of local government in designing and taking forward strategies that meet the differing needs of communities across the UK. Together with action from central government and others across society, we hope this could be the start of a new approach to tackling poverty in the UK that can finally move the dial.
Matthew Oakley is a senior economist and the founder and director of research consultancy WPI Economics
