We email a newsletter to all our supporters, like the one below, rounding up all the inequality-related news for the past month. If you want to get the latest inequality news quicker and sent direct to your inbox, just sign up to The Equality Trust newsletter here. Thank you.
One inequality-related issue pushed its way into the public consciousness perhaps more than others this month: homelessness. We have managed to create a society where we have people dying outside Parliament in the freezing cold while luxurious tower blocks lie empty close by. In between these extremes we have soaring rents, over-crowding and a broken housing market cleaving the country in two between home-owners and the rest. As well as being fundamentally unjust and creating a vast ocean of misery, it’s choking off social mobility and a lot of hope with it. Inequality looks set to rise along with the very real prospect of future generations being worse off than their parents and grandparents. At least there has been some new thinking around ideas such as universal basic income (UBI) as we contemplate a jobless and low/no wage future for way too many people, although UBI comes with its own challenges.
On a brighter note, this month also saw the Suffrage Centenary, celebrating 100 years since some (not all) women got the vote in Britain. Like many progressive campaigns, we draw inspiration from that campaign and its central, burning message; that power and privilege are never given away, they have to be demanded from those who have it by those who do not. So, thank you for your support for our demand – that the UK must become a materially more equal society if all are to flourish. Best wishes, The Equality Trust Team.
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LATEST BLOGS & COMMENT
PICK OF THE MONTH: TET Exec Director on It’s Time We Discussed The Class Pay Gap
– Will People Living Solely On UBI Be Demonised As “Basics”?
– TET Exec Director on RSA plans to give everyone £10k
– TET Exec Director on worsening rich/poor gap in life expectancy
– What Use Are The Rich?
– Monthly News From The Equality Trust (Dec 2017 – Jan 2018)
LATEST LOCAL GROUP NEWS
Plenty going on this month from high-profile talks to taking part in protests against council cuts and all points in between, as well as planning for the launch of Wilkinson & Pickett’s new book later this year. Just click her to find out more.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND REPORTS
PICK OF THE MONTH: Rich/poor life expectancy gap widens
– Resolution Foundation says the kids aren’t alright
– Resolution Foundation predicts rise in inequality
– Gingerbread charity report finds shocking child poverty figures
– High Pay Centre report says give workers a stake in the business
– RSA proposes everyone gets £10k
– LGA says 400,000+ homes waiting to be built
– Redistribute wealth says bastion of corporate America
– Tax Justice Network launch Financial Secrecy Index
– Advice on pay ratio reporting from the Resolution Foundation
– LGA says loss of social housing exacerbates housing crisis
INEQUALITY IN THE NEWS
PICK OF THE MONTH: Only the rich can buy a home in the UK now
– Persimmon slash boss’s bonus to mere £75 million
– Tech giants face tax clampdown
– Digital problems continue for Universal Credit roll-out
– Govt announces public bodies with homelessness responsibilities
– Govt anti-homelessness taskforce hasn’t met yet
– Health department ignoring UK life expectancy concerns
– Carillion pension scandal deepens
– Rights of women and mothers in the workplace in the dark ages
– PFI firms to get £4.8bn from schools by 2020
– Tragedy of UK homelessness strikes close to Parliament
– Financial adviser vultures swoop on steelworker pensions
– Beauty Banks starting up in the UK
– The gross Persimmon mega-bonus story rumbles on
– Surge in poverty rates for public sector workers’ children
– Housing restrictions trapping the vulnerable
– Big City accountants feast on carcass of Carillion
– UK rental properties owned from tax havens
– Tackle poverty to cut suicides say Samaritans Cymru
– Rich Westminster residents back voluntary donation scheme
– UK tenants pay record £50bn in rent in 2017
– Govt moves to tackle scandal of unpaid internships
– MPs say Universal Credit system full of ‘gobbledegook’
– Already regressive council tax to rise significantly this year
– Churches warn firms over pay, gender and climate change
– Govt promising action on gig economy worker rights
– Protest works: council removes “anti-homeless” bars
– Universal Credit decisions to be tested in court
– Posh towers adding insult to injury amidst housing crisis
– Universal Credit is now a digital obstacle course
BEST INEQUALITY READS
PICK OF THE MONTH: How to solve the UK’s wealth inequality problem
– Obesity is an inequality issue
– New book about the realities of life in low-wage Britain
– Facebook co-founder advocates a guaranteed income scheme
– Benefit sanctions are punishing disabled people for the sake of it
– New book out on Basic Income
– Poverty is now so visible that even the richest can see it
– The insidious and subtle harm of inequality
– Some of the super-rich are preparing for the apocalypse
– Why does democracy find it hard to tackle inequality?
– One community fighting back against the housing crisis
– WEF begins to question primacy of GDP (at last)
– It’s a hellish system – front line accounts of Universal Credit
– Welcome to the Wealthfare State for the already rich
– Current thinking on how we respond to the rise of the robots
– Does the key to the future lie in … Preston?
– Is mindfulness being used to cover up exploitation?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT!