A key part of our mission is bringing the voices and stories of those most impacted by the UK’s very high levels of inequality and poverty to those in power.

This submission is to Just Fair’s call for written evidence for their independent shadow report on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), ahead of the United Nations’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESR) next review of the UK. 

In this submission we bring together evidence gathered during focus groups we ran during 2021, which involved 50 participants over 6 months. Whilst the focus groups initially focused on the impacts of COVID-19, it became clear that the key issues people faced were due to pre-existing high and entrenched structural inequalities of income, wealth and power. Our research demonstrates how the inaction of successive UK governments on tackling structural inequalities has had a detrimental impact on the UK’s ability to uphold economic, social and cultural rights for all.