#solveukpoverty

Endorsements

#solveukpoverty

David BloodSenior Partner Generation Investment Management  

JRF’s work on poverty confronts a critical issue facing UK society and the global community at large. Poverty matters to us all – individuals, companies, and government – and the case for action to develop solutions is compelling across many dimensions. The moral obligation to assist those in need is fundamental and should be sufficient to catalyze immediate change. However, there are even further reasons to act.  Unaddressed, poverty tears at the social fabric of society, creating understandable disillusionment and unrest in afflicted communities. Mounting social instability in turn has the capacity to create economic volatility, harming the potential for continued growth and shared prosperity. Indeed, the economic case for addressing poverty is one which underpins our collective ability to realize a sustainable, prosperous, and equitable future. JRF’s commitment to this issue will undoubtedly advance the dialogue, providing tangible solutions for positive change.

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Mary BoustedDr General Secretary Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)

I am pleased the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has thrown the spotlight on the shameful effects of poverty and disadvantage on our young people. Reducing poverty should be one of the key aims of the government, because generations of young people are missing out on fulfilling their true potential because of hunger, bad housing conditions and poor mental health as a result.  We ought to hang our heads in shame that, in the fifth richest country, so many of our children are familiar with food banks. I urge the Government to prioritise reducing poverty to give this and future generations of children a good start in life.  Without tackling child poverty the Prime Minister will certainly not be able to achieve her aim of improving social mobility.

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Katherine ChapmanDirector Living Wage Foundation

The UK has an ‘in-work poverty’ problem. Over 6 million people are paid less than they need to live on and 64% of children in poverty live with someone in work. It’s clear that work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. JRF’s anti-poverty strategy comes at a critical moment - it provides a comprehensive framework for tackling poverty and offers real solutions to the UK’s entrenched poverty problem that we so desperately need. Paying the Living Wage is a key part of this strategy. Starting as a grassroots campaign 15 years ago, there are now over 2700 accredited Living Wage employers meaning that tens of thousands of low-paid workers have been lifted out of poverty. As the JRF make clear, UK poverty can only be solved by partners across business, civil society, voluntary organisations and governments working together to take action – we welcome this timely call to action.

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Shirley Cramer CBEChief ExecutiveRoyal Society for Public Health

The link between poverty and health outcomes is well established. We know that the social determinants of health – the place where we live, who our parents are, the kind of school we attend- has a massive bearing on our life and on our health outcomes. For those living in poverty, optimising health and wellbeing is often difficult as struggling financially has an impact on an individual’s stress, anxiety and overall mental and physical wellbeing . We also know (from our Health on the High Street campaign) that those living in more socially deprived areas have fewer healthy choices available and are often situated in areas in which there is a clustering of unhealthy businesses. We welcome JRF’s new strategy and its commitment to reduce poverty across the life course. Reducing poverty will ultimately improve the nation’s health and wellbeing and will make us stronger and more cohesive as a country.

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Helen Dickinson OBEChief ExecutiveBritish Retail Consortium

JRF is to be congratulated for preparing the first long-term comprehensive strategy to reduce poverty in the UK. Among the series of recommendations lies the recognition of the need to create better paid, better skilled jobs.

The report highlights the need to raise productivity in retail industry - a subject close to my heart and one we at the BRC have been working with our members on. It is perhaps the biggest challenge facing retail and one to be navigated over a period of unprecedented and accelerated change for the industry. Tackling low pay is but one part of the answer, but so too is the need to engage employees in addressing the productivity challenges of their business, creating a stronger link between training and progression, and for employers to better personalise the employment offer to the differing life needs of their employees.

This JRF research helps to put our work, and that of others, in the context of a wider strategy that if embraced by all players - and there are many - can deliver a knockout blow to social-ills such as in-work poverty.

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Sir Stuart EtheringtonChief ExecutiveNCVO

With millions of people in the UK still living in poverty, this challenge should be at the top of our agenda. Many voluntary organisations and volunteers work each day to tackle the root causes and consequences of poverty. They break down barriers into employment and also provide support to people affected by challenges such as poor mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse. Nevertheless, we still have a long way to go.  The strategy to tackle poverty set out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation adopts a multifaceted and practical approach to reduce the scale, severity, and duration of poverty. It is unique in its comprehensiveness, highlighting the need for different members of society to work together, from government to philanthropists. It is evident that the factors that cause and perpetuate poverty are manifold, but with dedication and the willingness to combine our efforts, we can make a real difference to the lives of millions of people across the country.

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Martyn EvansChief Executive Carnegie UK Trust

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s powerful challenge for us all is to harness our country's considerable civic energy and social ingenuity to all but eradicate poverty and despair. The endeavour deserves the widest support. Their thoughtful and evidence based strategy makes clear the scale of the challenge that we face– but crucially, it offers a compelling and ambitious route map for wholesale change. Our social wellbeing is at stake.

The JRF rightly emphasise that there must be a renewed focus on cross-sectoral work. Governments, civil society, funders and business have to work together and trust each other (as never before in peacetime) if meaningful and sustainable social change is to happen. I am particularly pleased that the strategy can tackle digital exclusion, low paid work and our neglected towns. These are critical priorities for the Carnegie UK Trust.

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Jayne-Anne Gadhia CBECEO Virgin Money

I am delighted to support the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s bold ambition to solve poverty in the UK.  I firmly believe that businesses have a key role to play in tackling poverty and improving our poorer communities. 

To play our part as a responsible business, at Virgin Money we are building a bank that aims to treat all customers fairly, including those who may not have had easy access to the banking system.  We recently launched our basic bank account, the Essential Current Account, a fair and simple product that can help those who are struggling to get a bank account.  We also launched the Virgin Money Foundation, a charity with ambitions to address some of the issues highlighted in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report. The Foundation supports the sustainable regeneration of deprived areas through tackling homelessness, providing young people with the support they need to gain employment, and funding social enterprise initiatives that work in areas of deprivation.

I’m proud of the part we are playing in the movement to solve UK poverty and I applaud this important publication.

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Simon HopkinsChief Executive Turn2us

The publication of JRF’s compelling report provides a timely reminder that poverty is a stressful reality for millions in the UK. But it also acts as a collective call to action to confront and defeat this stubborn foe.

We wholeheartedly agree that tackling poverty needs a coordinated and determined approach involving multiple bodies across all sectors. This report can, and must, become a rallying call to any organisation or individual who has the will and the resources to fight UK poverty. There is much inspiring work already being done – our collective response must be to combine better to make that work as comprehensive and effective as possible.

New models of collaboration are needed and that will require coordination and courage in equal measure. Turn2us is already making common cause with a number of like-minded organisations and groups to make that a reality.

I genuinely hope that one day we can look back on this report as a positive watershed moment in the battle with poverty. The prize on offer is a UK free of this scourge.

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Martin Johnstone SecretaryChurch & Society Council

Imagine a country where our children can grow up happy, safe and confident in the future; where homes are warm, dry and affordable; where work is life-giving and life-enhancing; and where people can still flourish and laugh in their old age. For the majority of people in the UK, we don’t need to imagine this – the dream, with the occasional knock back, is reality. But for others – too many others – it sounds fanciful and utterly impossible. It does not need to be. It must not be. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlights the eye watering economic cost of poverty in the UK – a staggering £78bn every year – and gives powerful testimony to what that means for those at the sharp end of our collective failure to address its root causes. But the genuinely exciting thing in this strategy is not simply its analysis of the problems but its articulate and honest advocacy of the potential solutions including, vitally, the involvement who face the struggle against poverty on a daily basis.  Its recommendations are tangible and realistic but, like all great achievements, they will require determination and long-term commitment.

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Dann KenninghamNational Co-ordinationGrassroots ActivistATD Fourth World

It is imperative when speaking about poverty to reflect on the links between poverty and justice...poverty and discrimination...poverty and prejudice and poverty and hope: and I believe this resonates through the new piece of work by JRF.

This important in depth strategic plan underpins the multidimensional nature of poverty and encouragingly sheds light on diverse ways to overcome poverty in the UK. It makes it clear that poverty is unacceptable and that everyone at all levels in society, governments, businesses, communities and citizens have a responsibility and vital role to play in its eradication.

This strategy provides desperately needed recommendations for positive societal change. The report echo's the voice of people in poverty and clear efforts have been made to engage with people with an experience of poverty in the process. One of the main obstacles in any anti-poverty strategy is challenging the public perceptions of poverty, often based on the misleading main-stream media agenda or lack of real experience and understanding of poverty.

This report stands as a challenge to the prevailing negative stereotypes of people who experience poverty in the UK and can be a tool to counterbalance these negative perceptions. It highlights the need to move away from blaming and shaming people in poverty for their situation. It shows the need to involve them in finding solutions and in leading constructive debates and dialogue on overcoming poverty.

A challenge we all should welcome is involving people in poverty in the development of this important strategy, working together with them in a way that they can feel a real sense of shared ownership, playing a vital role in the process and in the strategy’s future impact.

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Maryanne MatthewsChief Executive EY Foundation

It is vital that we work together to fight poverty for everyone in society. At the EY Foundation we are especially passionate about investing in those who are young and in poverty who face increasingly precarious futures.  We strongly support the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF) strategy to conquer poverty in the UK. Wherever they live in the UK, young people at risk of poverty must be given the right help to start their working lives. Quality careers guidance combined with meaningful opportunities to develop both workplace skills and an understanding of what work is about are key in achieving this. Employers have an essential role to play in this, above creating job opportunities with prospects. This is why the EY Foundation's work with employers and corporate partners is so important.   We will do everything we can to support this important area of JRF’s strategy.

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Sir Charlie MayfieldChairmanJohn Lewis Partnership

Whilst employment in the UK has remained steady in the years following the recession, our economy faces significant challenges. Productivity remains stubbornly flat and, in turn, incomes are not advancing in many households.

One of the most commonly held assumptions since the Second World War has been that people would grow up better off than their parents and grandparents. Unless something changes, that may no longer hold true. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's work provides an important framework for understanding the challenges we see today, and sets out a road map to improve living standards for many.

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Alan Milburn Chair Social MobilityCommission

Over recent years, there has been a growing sense of Britain becoming an “us and them” society, where whole tracts of our country feel left behind. This is deeply corrosive, socially and economically. Without a dramatic change in how we approach issues of poverty and social mobility, our nation risks becoming ever more divided. We can stick with the entrenched views and failed strategies of the past or we can take an honest and fresh look at the social problems our country faces. The JRF’s poverty strategy does just that. It offers a long-term vision and approach which involves government, individuals, communities, businesses and charities working together to find real solutions. “Britain is a rich and talented country, but it’s a stain on our great nation that so many live in poverty. We need to make a new start. We need to recognise the deep divisions within our society and act to heal them. We can and should become a country where the benefits of prosperity are shared on a more equal basis.

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Shaykh Ibrahim MograMuslim Council of Britain

The JRF strategy paper states, “a child born in a poor neighbourhood will die an average of 9 years earlier than their peers.” This cannot be God’s doing, but rather the consequence of human actions. Religious circles and free marketers have often failed to identify the actual causes and therefore apportioned blame elsewhere. If the right balance between markets and social conscience can be obtained then society as a whole can change the situation. The post global financial crisis era that we now live in has opened up an opportunity for society to get this balance right again since raw neoliberalism has now been discredited.  The JRF has an admirable record of work in the field of poverty reduction in the UK. It advocates poverty reduction in a realistic and meaningful way. Their strategy paper on “We can Solve UK Poverty” does not indulge in idealism and utopia, but rather builds on evidence based research and deep understanding of the UK’s economy to advocate realisable strategies given the political will. The report explores how the different stakeholders – national governments, local governments, Employers, Businesses, Service Providers, Public Service Providers, Housing Providers and Social Investors and Philanthropists – working in tandem can make poverty history in a space of two to three decades. This is indeed a worthy objective to work for. The Muslim Council of Britain is acutely aware that the incidence of poverty falls disproportionately on the UK’s Muslim communities and they suffer from a double penalty as most of the communities are composed of ethnic minorities who are also then discriminated against because of their faith. The MCB’s pioneering work on ‘Muslims in Numbers’ based on analysis of the 2011 Census Data highlighted the scale of the problem. This has been supplemented by recent work done by the Runnymede Trust that has highlighted this double handicap with some analytical research on the implications of the last two budgets on Muslims. It is, therefore, critically important for the Muslim community to align with organisations like the JRF to advance a worthy agenda. I have pleasure to endorse the JRF strategy paper on Solving UK Poverty and assure them of the MCB’s fullest co-operation in this regard.

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Frances O'GradyGeneral Secretary Trades Union Congress

The JRF report is a valuable contribution to the campaign against poverty and highlights the need for action at many levels. Every leading institution must play its part and unions are impatient to contribute.

We know that pay is more equal when employers and strong unions determine pay and conditions through collective bargaining. Unions are keen to work with business to improve productivity, raise the skill levels of people with low qualifications and boost the earnings of low-paid workers. Government must play its part too to tackle in-work poverty, taking redistributive action including reversing the Universal Credit cuts that are set to hit thousands of working people in the next few years.

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Lord Porter of Spalding CBE ChairmanLocal Government Association

Recent economic and political change has led to some uncertainty. It is more important than ever that we all understand the pressures that are facing low income households at the moment, as well as the opportunities available to them. Councils have a key role to play in coordinating services to support families who are already in or, are at risk of poverty. Secure housing that is both affordable and appropriate to their needs is vital as is access to a good education, employment, family support services, benefits advice and public health services. Resources are tight so we must be able to target and integrate our support and interventions effectively. Strong local leadership is necessary to do this as well as to our ability to grow our local economies and give all local people a stake in their community. This timely and important piece of work from JRF will, I hope, give us the opportunity to identify and learn from the great deal of excellent practice that is already happening in local areas.  It should also allow us to better understand the risks and barriers for low income households, and inform future policy development at both the national and local level.

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Liz Sayce OBEChief Executive Disability Rights UK

I think it sets a powerful agenda which I sincerely hope will be taken forward.

Bringing the role of the state together with the role of the market and individuals is absolutely right.

The evidence, analysis and recommendations are strong - and I welcome the call for more and better part-time jobs – this is important for disabled people as well as others - as well as the recognition that sometimes other things are more important in life than employment. It is great to have all these arguments and this evidence together.

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The Most Reverend and Right Honourable

Dr John SentamuArchbishop of York

Poverty is real but not inevitable. We must tackle its underlying causes. In the Beveridge Report of 1942, Beveridge spoke of ‘five giants that had to be slain on the road to post-war reconstruction’ – Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. In our time we need to slay the giant of Income Inequality – no-one in a particular region, social class, or ethnic group – no young people anywhere should grow up without equal access to the opportunities of education, training, and paid employment that does not pay poverty wages.   In our Churches we are committed to standing alongside people seeking to break out of poverty - through debt advice and budgeting courses, through self-help groups, and a host of initiatives which empower leaders, strengthen community, and offer opportunities for growth and human flourishing. But without real, careful, targeted policy change at national level such measures would just be ‘sticking plaster’ solutions. The UK needs a comprehensive, long-term, multi-faceted strategy to reduce poverty in a sustainable way, rooted in cross-party consensus. This report helps to point the way.

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The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin WelbyArchbishop of Canterbury

I am delighted that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are launching a new and radical strategy to tackle UK poverty. Our country is at a crucial point in its history, and the right response requires all of us to be generous, compassionate and absolutely clear about the values that drive us towards a society built on the common good and a commitment to human flourishing for all people. Jesus Christ is unequivocal in his example, his teaching, his death and resurrection, that we are to love and to serve the poor. This new strategy is so significant because it recognises that what is required is a holistic and inclusive approach to tackling poverty. It requires every sector, every institution, every community and every person to be involved in the response. I warmly welcome its publication and encourage as many people as possible to respond to the call to end poverty in the UK.

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Brett Wigdortz OBEFounder and CEOTeach First

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s anti-poverty strategy is a serious and ambitious attempt to grapple with the enormous range of issues that influence poverty. It is clear we need sustained action from charities, business and government on this agenda. One of the most important issues this report covers is education. Too often disadvantage still determines destiny, in education and life chances. At Teach First we’ve always been clear that we cannot tackle this on our own. I’m delighted to see valuable recommendations on early intervention and getting great teachers to areas of greatest need. I hope this report will continue to inspire collective action on how we as a society can end educational inequality.

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Jane WoodManaging Director Business in the Community Scotlandand Director of External Affairs Business in the Community

Scotland is a country in which there are vibrant, diverse businesses driving economic growth through internal and foreign investment. As these businesses grow they are creating new jobs but their success is not shared by all. One fifth of our population and nearly a quarter of a million of our children live in poverty and it's getting worse. The impact on social cohesion is significant and widening inequality has an equally serious impact on businesses and on our economy. Against a back drop of a stable working age population, current skills shortages, market uncertainty following BREXIT and an increasingly digital economy, Scotland needs everyone to contribute to and benefit from shared economic growth because successful business and successful society are two sides of the same coin, one cannot succeed without the other.

It simply makes good sense to ensure that the profits which come from good business are used to ensure future, quality labour market supply rather than being ever more concentrated in the hands of the few, at the ultimate cost of the economy as a whole. BITC Scotland's Ready for Work programme is one such contribution to achieving inclusive growth. We welcome JRF’s ambitious and strategic proposals which underpin our own in creating a fairer and healthier Scotland.