Britain is bleeding people. Not the super-rich packing up for Monaco, but ordinary working families, graduates and pensioners who have simply had enough. They are looking at the bills, looking at their wages, and heading for the door.

New figures make for grim reading. Emigration jumped by over 6% in 2025. Last year, 252,000 Brits left the UK while only 143,000, returned. We are losing more than we are gaining. And the reasons are not complicated.

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Priced out

61% of Brits planning to move overseas blame Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, while a full half point to the economy. These are not people chasing adventure. They are people chasing a decent life. The kind of life that used to be possible here.

So where are they going? Amsterdam is leading the charge, pulling in an average of 9,000 annual “move to” searches. Singapore, New York, Sydney, Paris and Berlin all feature heavily too. The pattern is clear. Brits are scanning the globe for somewhere that actually works for ordinary people.

Asad Mirza, Logistics Specialist at Cargo Force, puts it plainly: “What we’re seeing is a mix of lifestyle-led and opportunity-led destinations, with cities like Amsterdam and Singapore offering a balance of career prospects, quality of life, and international connectivity”.

Gen Z exodus

But perhaps the most troubling part of this story is who is leaving. It is not just the over-50s dreaming of sunshine. It is young people. It is the next generation. And they are going earlier than ever before.

A new report from The TEFL Academy, dubbed The Great Gen Z Exodus, reveals a major shift in life planning, with people in their 20s increasingly choosing to build careers abroad rather than waiting until their 30s.

The numbers are stark. In June 2025, departures among those aged 20 to 29 reached 130,000 to 140,000, significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels of around 92,000 to 95,000 in 2018. Around 195,000 Brits under 35 emigrated in the past year, meaning younger adults now account for the vast majority of those leaving the country.

Why? Ask them and they will tell you straight. Among respondents aged 18 to 34, more than 86% agreed that UK wages do not reflect the cost of living, while around 79% said they feel constant financial pressure living in the UK. Confidence in long-term UK prospects averages just 2.44 out of 5.

According to the British Council, 72% of UK adults aged 18 to 30 say they would consider living and working abroad, while 63% believe their standard of living is worse than that of their parents’ generation.

Running toward opportunity

Read that again. Nearly two-thirds of young Brits think they are worse off than their parents. That is not a blip. That is a failure. A failure of those in power to protect the people they are supposed to serve.

Rhyan O’Sullivan, Managing Director at The TEFL Academy, says: “Young Britons aren’t running away from the UK, they’re running toward opportunity”. He is right. But we should be angry that opportunity is something they have to run toward rather than find at home.

This is what happens when the polluters and extractors and their cronies in government put profit before people. Ordinary Brits, young and old, are left to pick up the bill while those at the top pocket the rewards. Enough is enough: no one should have to leave the country they love just to live a decent life.

Forget flatshares with strangers who steal your milk. A growing number of young women in London have found a very different kind of housemate: nuns.

At the Religious of Mary Immaculate Hostel in South Kensington, young women of all faiths and none are renting rooms in a convent and loving every minute of it. Daily Mail journalist Mimi Yates visited the hostel for a TikTok that quickly went viral, describing it as “a low-cost solution to a very modern problem”.

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Sisters are doing it for themselves

The rules are simple. Only women can live there. Men are welcome in the communal areas but banned from the bedrooms. There’s a curfew on weekdays and weekends. And breakfast is provided every morning.

Sounds strict? The residents don’t seem to mind. One woman called Sophia described it as “cosy, safe, full of friends”. Another resident, Karen, is training to be a burlesque dancer. The sisters have watched her perform and clapped along.

The nuns even organise weekly movie nights. It’s less silent retreat, more student halls run by the kindest people you’ve ever met.

The harsh reality for young people

But behind the charm of convent living lies a much harder truth. Young women aren’t moving in with nuns because it’s quirky. They’re doing it because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.

The numbers are brutal. Young adults aged 18 to 25 are now handing over half their wages just to keep a roof over their heads, according to a 2025 UK Rental Affordability report. In London, the average rent hit £2,273 a month by early 2026. A one-bedroom flat? That’ll set you back £1,620 a month on average.

Think about that. If you’re earning the average salary for a young person in your twenties, roughly £31,000, you’re spending much of what you earn after tax just on rent. There’s precious little left for food, bills or anything resembling a life.

And it’s not just a London problem. Across the country, the average renter spent 41% of their take-home pay on rent in 2025, up from 36% the year before. That is not sustainable. That is a crisis.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Britons under 40 don’t own a home, with just 22.5% of those aged 25-34 owning property. More than four in ten adults under 40 have given up on owning a home in the next decade. Record numbers of twentysomethings are moving back in with their parents because the alternative is financial ruin.

Failure in the housing market

This is what happens when the people in charge let the housing market run wild for decades. When they build homes for profit instead of people. When they let landlords squeeze every last penny out of renters who have nowhere else to turn.

The nuns of South Kensington are doing something wonderful. They’re offering safety, community and dignity at a price young women can actually afford. But the fact that a 19th-century religious order is picking up the slack for a 21st-century government tells you everything you need to know about where we are.

Young people deserve better than choosing between a convent and a cupboard. It’s time to demand a fair future for everyone.

Remember when the Prime Minister promised to cut your energy bills by £300 a year? Well, forget that. Thanks to the chaos in global oil and gas markets, your bills could jump by £288 come July. That’s not a cut. That’s a slap in the face.

A new report from the New Economics Foundation warns that this energy shock could be even worse than the crisis we lived through in 2022. And this time, our economy is in a much weaker position to deal with it. At worst, we’re looking at soaring inflation, falling demand and even recession.

So how did we get here? Because the UK is still hooked on imported gas. Every time there’s a conflict overseas, we pay the price. Ordinary families and small businesses are left picking up the tab.

The report lays out what the government needs to do right now. And honestly, none of it is rocket science.

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Give every household a fair deal on energy

The centrepiece proposal is simple: guarantee every home a basic amount of cheap energy to cover the essentials. Heating water, keeping two rooms warm, running a fridge and a washing machine. That’s not luxury. That’s survival. The Foundation calls this an “essential energy guarantee”.

The clever part? It’s funded by taxing the very companies profiting from this crisis. The report estimates the policy would cost £4.5 billion, which sits comfortably within the projected £5.6 billion in tax revenues from UK oil and gas production. In other words, make the polluters pay.

This isn’t some radical experiment either. Countries like Japan, South Korea and India already do this. After the 2022 crisis, Austria, Greece, Poland and the Netherlands all introduced similar protections. We’re actually behind the curve.

On top of that, the report calls for removing all policy costs from energy bills and shifting them to taxation. That alone would knock £106 off your annual bill and stop the poorest households from paying a disproportionate share.

Stop the Bank of England from making things worse

Here’s something that should make your blood boil. Last time energy prices spiked, the Bank of England hiked interest rates. The report is blunt: it did little to help consumers or the wider economy. That’s because the inflation wasn’t caused by people spending too much. It was caused by global energy prices.

The report warns we cannot repeat this mistake. Hiking rates now would only take more money out of the economy at a time when consumers and businesses already have less to spend and invest because energy bills are eating up more of their outgoings.

Break free from gas for good

Some politicians will tell you the answer is more drilling in the North Sea. Don’t fall for it. The report is clear: there’s little gas left to extract, and even if there were, it wouldn’t lower your bills because gas continues to set the price for the entire UK energy market based on global prices. More drilling won’t help lower energy costs.

The real answer is clean energy. Solar panels, batteries, homegrown power that no foreign conflict can touch. The government needs to speed up the rollout of renewables and use public finance institutions like the National Wealth Fund to drive down costs, not lock us into decades of expensive gas.

The bottom line

This crisis didn’t come from nowhere. We’ve been left dangerously dependent on foreign gas while the one thing that is actually protecting us right now, renewables, still isn’t being rolled out fast enough.

The solutions exist. Protect people’s essential energy. Stop repeating the same monetary policy mistakes. And build a clean energy system that actually works for us, not for the polluters.

The only question is whether the government has the nerve to act.

Britain’s once solid route into the world of work is under siege from artificial intelligence according to new research by the British Chambers of Commerce. The rise of AI is not just a talking point for tech insiders: it is already reshaping the early days of careers for millions of young people and ordinary families across the UK.

Skills shortage

The BCC’s latest report shows that around two-thirds of UK firms now say they cannot find workers with the right skills to do the jobs they need done. That labour shortage has been made worse by AI adoption and rising employment costs which could see youth unemployment spike to an eye-watering 17 per cent this year.

This dramatic statistic tells a grim story for entry-level roles that have traditionally given young people their first break. These are the jobs that matter for building confidence earning wages and learning how to contribute to an employer. Instead, the work landscape is rapidly changing with automation and smart tools performing tasks that used to be done by junior staff.

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AI adoption in business

The BCC points out that 54 per cent of small and medium sized enterprises are now using AI tools up from just 25 per cent in 2024 showing how rapidly this technology is embedding itself in everyday business life.

But the numbers also underline the scale of the challenge. Only about one in ten firms say they have invested in advanced bespoke AI systems that directly reduce headcount but the concerns about entry level jobs are intensifying as adoption deepens. Employers are increasingly asking whether certain junior roles remain necessary when machines can perform the same tasks faster and cheaper.

For ordinary people the effects are already being felt. Young jobseekers hoping to earn their first pay packet face a tougher market than their parents did. With skills shortages persistent and AI taking on routine tasks that used to be stepping stones into careers the talent pipeline is thinning at an alarming rate.

Few chances for the young

The BCC study suggests that fewer entry-level opportunities mean that young people may have less chance to gain crucial workplace experience and develop their skills a situation that almost guarantees a more uneven future unless action is taken.

Employers now face a stark choice between managing rising costs and embracing new technologies while still developing the next generation of workers. The BCC warns that current policy changes such as increases in national insurance and minimum wage reforms have effectively raised the cost of hiring entry-level workers by around seven per cent in real terms adding another barrier to junior hiring.

Support needed

The solution for a fair future rests on how the nation supports ordinary people through this transition. Technology should not push young workers out of the jobs market. Instead, the Government and businesses must ensure that training, reskilling and apprenticeships are widely available to equip people with the right skills for today’s world of work.

The BCC’s report recommends using funds such as the Growth and Skills Levy to subsidise AI literacy and giving tax credits or grants to encourage employers not just to adopt AI but to invest in human talent alongside it.

AI can be a powerful tool for productivity but only if it works with people not against them. If Britain fails to support ordinary families and young people through this period of transformation then the dream of a fair future where hard work leads to opportunity will slip away.

Policymakers must act now to safeguard entry-level jobs and the promise of social mobility that goes with them so that the next generation is not the one left behind by the AI revolution.

Britain is gripped by a crisis of confidence as millions of voters privately despair that no mainstream political party even bothers to treat the cost-of-living emergency as a genuine priority. The latest YouGov poll paints an unsettling picture of a public left feeling abandoned and short-changed, with little faith that Labour, the Conservatives or the smaller parties have their backs.

Cost-of-living the number one issue

In a stunning indictment of modern British politics, 53 per cent of Britons now say the cost of living is the most important issue facing the country, yet few believe that any party actually acknowledges it. Despite ever-rising bills and the daily squeeze on family finances, only between nine and 15 per cent of voters think any of the major parties regard inflation and household budgets as top-tier concerns.

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That’s right: more than half the public are worried sick about putting food on the table and paying energy bills, but the party leaders are sleepwalking on the issue. The figures will be a bitter blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government, which campaigned last year on promises of “getting to grips” with the cost of living. Instead, just 15 per cent of Britons think Labour consider the cost of living one of their main priorities, and even among Labour supporters, barely 40 per cent believe their own party cares.

The Tories and the Liberal Democrats fare no better in the polls, with only around one in ten voters saying they believe those parties treat the crisis as a top concern. Even the Greens and Reform UK—who had hoped to carve out political space as the authentic voices of the struggling public—attract only marginal confidence on the issue.

No good choice

The fallout is clear: voters are headed for an identity crisis at the ballot box. When asked which party would be best placed to tackle the cost of living, the responses are a muddle of indecision, scepticism and bluster. The Conservatives and Labour are marginally ahead on paper, at 18 and 16 per cent respectively, but hardly a ringing endorsement. Reform and the Greens trail closely, leaving a picture of deep political distrust and apathy.

And while Westminster wrangles about priorities, everyday Brits are feeling the pinch. The YouGov data shows that around 42 per cent of adults say they’ve struggled to pay food bills regularly, with similar numbers flagging energy bills and fuel costs as persistent headaches. Nearly half say their household finances have worsened over the past year, and a worrying two-thirds believe the nation’s economy is on the wrong track.

The daily grind

This is no mere academic polling exercise. For millions of families ploughing their last pennies into essentials, the sense that politicians are out of touch isn’t hyperbole: it’s daily reality. And with public anger simmering, the poll suggests a huge electoral opening for any party or leader courageous enough to make the cost of living their obsession.

In short, Britain’s political class may talk about the cost of living but the people don’t believe a word of it. And until that changes, voters look set to stay unconvinced, unreassured and utterly unmotivated to rally behind a government they think has forgotten them.

Britain is sleepwalking towards an unprecedented property calamity that could leave 430,000 homes worthless and homeowners trapped in high-cost mortgages by 2050, a chilling new report warns.

The damning paper, Flooding the Market: The Climate Mortgage Trap, exposes how rising flood risks could transform thousands of ordinary households into what analysts are now calling “climate mortgage prisoners”.

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Insurance price hike

According to the report, perilous increases in river, sea and surface water floods mean insurers will be forced to hike premiums or withdraw coverage altogether. Without affordable insurance, many homeowners will be unable to remortgage or sell their properties and could be forced on to punishing standard variable rates, leaving them with crippling bills.

Experts behind the report paint a grim picture of a housing market in crisis. They warn that in such a world homes that become harder to insure and mortgage could be left unsellable and effectively worthless.

One of the report’s stark conclusions is that the ripple effects from these mortgage prisoners could disrupt the flow of lending and create a localised credit crunch, squeezing banks and homeowners alike.

In the worst-case scenario, where losses are widespread and banks’ balance sheets are strained, such upheaval could ripple throughout the wider economy and pose a risk to overall financial stability.

Nearly half a million exposed

The scale of the looming crisis is staggering. The research finds that 430,000 mortgaged homes in England alone could fall into this trap by mid-century, the same number as the population of Birmingham.

And it will not be spread evenly. Low-lying areas like Boston and Skegness have the highest concentrations of at-risk properties, potentially earning the unenviable title of the climate mortgage prisoner capital of England. Other constituencies such as Thurrock and Goole and Pocklington are not far behind.

Once flood risk bites, the consequences for household finances could be severe. The report predicts that homeowners in high-risk areas may face up to £45,000 in repair costs after a storm, while being unable to insure or sell their homes

Industry figures behind the study have issued a blunt warning. “For most British families, their home is their single biggest source of wealth,” said one director involved in the report. “But weather risks… are starting to erode that, as some properties become harder to insure and mortgage”. The report stresses that without decisive action within this Parliament, up to half a million households could be left trapped on higher rates in unsellable homes.

Urgent reforms needed

To avert this looming catastrophe, the paper calls for a series of urgent reforms. Among them is the introduction of Flood Performance Certificates to make climate risk transparent for buyers, and long-term clarity over the future of the government-backed FloodRe insurance scheme, which currently subsidises flood-prone properties.

The authors also urge the government to boost green and resilience mortgages, toughen building regulations and fully integrate climate adaptation into national policy.

Without such measures, the UK faces a housing market where whole neighbourhoods could become uninhabitable financial liabilities rather than homes. The clock is ticking.

Hundreds of thousands of households already struggling with sky-high energy and fuel costs could be in for an even worse shock, critics warned yesterday as 40 of Britain’s most high-profile civil society groups demanded the Chancellor squeeze more tax from corporate giants cashing in on the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Campaign groups unite

In a blistering joint letter to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, unions, campaigners and charities including the National Education Union, Tax Justice UK, Greenpeace UK, 38 Degrees, Global Witness, Women’s Budget Group and Patriotic Millionaires UK have called for far tougher taxes on excess profits.

The coalition said many firms are on course for “windfall revenues” as a result of the economic chaos triggered by the conflict in the Middle East, and that it would be a “turning point for the UK” to seize that cash and use it to help ordinary families battered by the cost-of-living crisis.

At a time when households are already feeling the pinch from rising energy bills, soaring fuel costs and ever-higher prices for everyday essentials, the letter’s signatories said it was simply not acceptable for corporations to rake in eye-watering profits.

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‘Rich get richer while everyone else foots the bill’

Faiza Shaheen, Executive Director of Tax Justice UK, poured scorn on successive Governments for failing to keep corporate greed in check. She said: “Too often UK governments have failed to protect households and small businesses from the profiteering corporates and super-rich individuals who circle around crises like vultures”.

Ms Shaheen added that other countries had moved faster to shield ordinary citizens. “Spain has already frozen rents, yet our government fails to show urgency… this will not be yet another crisis where the rich get richer, while everyone else foots the bill”.

New data cited in the letter suggests some North Sea energy firms are already looking at “extra profits”, banks could pocket more revenue as mortgage costs rise and even big agricultural and defence contractors are posting record returns thanks to the global disruption.

Oil giants under fire

Areeba Hamid of Greenpeace UK did not pull her punches, warning that Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels was lining the pockets of oil executives at the expense of hard-pressed families. She said: “The oil-majors are set to make gargantuan profits from global instability while ordinary people pay the price of Trump’s war in Iran”.

Ms Hamid dismissed calls to relax windfall taxes on oil firms as a “slap in the face” to those struggling with energy bills and insisted that “the fossil fuel industry should be contributing more tax, not less”.

A ‘fair tax’ for tough times

Among the measures proposed by the alliance is a beefed-up tax on excess profits from North Sea oil and gas companies and a new levy on UK bank profits that are seen as being boosted by higher costs for consumers. They also want special levies on defence firms, big agribusiness and AI and Big Tech companies expected to benefit from the war’s economic ripple effects.

Simon Francis, Coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, warned the disruption to gas prices had already pushed household bills to “elevated levels” and urged the Government to act now to protect families: “The Government must act urgently to protect households from the impact of rising prices and ensure that the billions in excess profits energy companies are making … are redirected to support the people who need it most”.

Conor O’Shea of Cost of Living Action added that politicians’ pledges to tackle profiteering “must now be matched by decisive action”. He said a tax on excess profits was “a fair and necessary step to rein in corporate greed and prevent the cost of essentials from spiralling further.”

The coalition insisted that the Government has a narrow window to stop profiteering before prices climb further and households are pushed to breaking point. With public anger mounting, campaigners said ministers can no longer ignore calls for a tougher approach to corporate excess.

More than seven million Britons face a catastrophic retirement crisis. That is the bleak conclusion of a new report by the Social Market Foundation think tank, which reveals that a staggering 54 per cent of Generation X—those aged between 46 and 61—have inadequate savings.

Reform voters exposed

But it is the report’s political findings that are the real eye-opener. A full 55 per cent of Reform voters in the Gen X age group are projected to suffer a brutal “pension shock”, the highest of any party’s supporters. Green Party voters are a close second, with 53 per cent facing the same grim fate.

The irony could not be starker. Reform voters are the most vulnerable but are supporting a leader who clearly has no interest other than lining the pockets of his dodgy donors and polluting paymasters and who will no doubt hang them out to dry.

And critically, most of them do not even know it yet.

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A cruel trap

The report, based on a survey of more than 2,000 Gen Xers carried out by polling company Survation, paints a picture of a generation caught in a uniquely cruel trap.

Born too late to enjoy the gold-plated defined benefit pensions their parents enjoyed—the ones that guaranteed an income for life—Gen X were already decades into their working lives when auto-enrolment finally arrived in 2012. By then, most had spent years contributing next to nothing to a pension pot that was never going to be enough.

The result: 39 per cent will retire unable to maintain their current standard of living, while 35 per cent face incomes below the bare minimum needed to cover basic necessities, currently set at just £13,400 a year.

For roughly two million in the generation, there is no safety net whatsoever: no property equity, no savings, no investments, nothing to fall back on.

A slow-moving avalanche

Gideon Salutin, Chief Economist at the Social Market Foundation, did not hide his alarm: “This generation now approaching retirement forms a slow-moving avalanche,” he warned, “Millions are heading for a retirement without the income they expect. Without action, their retirements will be meagre. Despite many of them working longer than their parents and making more money than their parents, Gen X is in for a substantially worse retirement.”

The regional picture is equally grim and will enrage anyone who believes the North-South divide has been ignored for too long. Nearly half of all Gen Xers in the North East—49 per cent—are projected to fall below even minimum retirement living standards, compared to just 19 per cent in London.

They don’t know what’s coming

Perhaps most alarming of all is how many people simply have no idea what is coming. Half of all survey respondents said they expected a higher retirement income than projections show they will actually receive. A remarkable 57 per cent said they do not regularly think about what retirement might cost them, and a mere 11 per cent have ever sought financial advice.

Catherine Foot, Director of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, which sponsored the research, issued a stark warning: “Gen X are at the sharp end of a building retirement crisis. While today’s retirees are better off than previous generations, this trend is set to go into reversal within the next decade and into the 2040s. There is a relatively short window now in which to act.”

The report calls on the Government’s Pensions Commission to raise default auto-enrolment contributions from the current 8 per cent to 12 per cent, and to urgently expand free financial guidance to the millions who need it.

For the millions of Reform voters who thought the system had failed them on immigration and the cost of living, the pension timebomb is about to make it feel a great deal more personal.

Suggestions of a “net zero backlash” and populist revolt against green policies may be little more than a myth fuelled by elites in politics and the media. That’s the conclusion of a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research that claims the British public is being misled into thinking climate action is deeply unpopular, when in reality support remains strong.

Researchers found that around 60 per cent of voters back the UK’s 2050 net zero target, despite a growing chorus of political voices warning of a voter revolt. Yet the report lays the blame squarely at the feet of Westminster and the media, accusing both of amplifying a false narrative of public anger.

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Politicians under fire

In a stark warning, the think tank said claims of a backlash are “overstated”, with “political division among elites and distorted media narratives” posing the real threat to climate progress. The findings will alarm ministers already jittery about the rising popularity of insurgent parties and mounting pressure over the cost of living.

Crucially, the research found climate policy is barely registering as a reason for voters switching sides. Just 4 per cent of Labour-to-Reform defectors cited net zero as a factor in their decision.

Instead, the report points to a widening gulf between what the public actually thinks and what politicians believe they think. Conservative MPs, it found, are underestimating support for net zero by around 18 percentage points, suggesting a dramatic misreading of the national mood.

Media under fire

The media also comes under heavy fire. Analysis revealed that online news coverage of net zero in 2025 was more than two and a half times as negative as public sentiment. That relentless negativity, researchers warn, risks creating a dangerous echo chamber in which politicians react to a backlash that does not truly exist.

Becca Massey-Chase, one of the report’s authors, said: “Claims of a voter backlash against net zero have taken hold in Westminster, but the evidence shows they are largely a political myth.” She added: “The British public continues to support climate action, and politicians risk fighting the wrong battle if they assume otherwise.”

Her colleague Sam Alvis delivered an equally stark message, warning that some figures are actively undermining public support. He said: “Some politicians are deliberately trying to undermine public support for climate action.”

People want climate action

Despite the political noise, the report insists voters remain concerned about the impact of climate change on their lives and their children’s futures. But with living costs biting, climate has slipped down the list of immediate priorities, leaving space for critics to seize the narrative.

The think tank warns that if politicians respond by watering down green commitments, they risk creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which perceived backlash becomes reality. Instead, it urges leaders to make a confident case for net zero, focus on lowering bills through clean energy, and rebuild trust with voters.

The message is clear. The real danger may not be public opposition at all, but a political class, often in the pockets of polluters, spooked by headlines of its own making.

There is a striking thread running through new research that will raise eyebrows in Westminster and beyond. At a time when households are still feeling the squeeze, many Britons have not given up on the idea that government can step in and make life fairer.

Fresh data from More in Common suggests that belief in the power of the state remains stronger than some might expect. Far from a public that has lost faith, the findings point to a country that still sees government as a force capable of meaningful change in the cost-of-living crisis.

At the heart of it is a simple but potent idea. People think solutions are possible.

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Immediate problems

Take pensions. The so-called triple lock has long been a political battleground, yet 51 per cent of those surveyed believe the government could commit to maintaining it for another ten years. That is no small expectation given the pressure on public finances. It signals that for many, protecting older generations is not only desirable but achievable.

Energy bills are another flashpoint. With global instability pushing up costs, half of respondents, 50 per cent, believe the government could subsidise people’s bills to shield them from the impact of the war in Iran. This is a public that clearly thinks ministers have tools at their disposal and should be willing to use them.

Bigger ambitions

Perhaps most striking is the optimism around some of the country’s most entrenched problems. Nearly half, 48 per cent, believe the government could end homelessness. For an issue that has persisted for decades, that figure reveals a surprising level of confidence that political will, if applied, could bring about real change.

Even more ambitious is the idea of a Universal Basic Income. Once seen as a fringe proposal, it is now considered within reach by a significant share of the public. Some 43 per cent believe the government could introduce such a scheme for everyone. That suggests a growing openness to bold economic interventions aimed at reshaping society, a conversation that will no doubt grow as AI continues to threaten our jobs.

People think a fair future is possible

The findings cut against a familiar narrative that voters have lost faith in big government solutions. While trust in politicians themselves may fluctuate, belief in the capacity of government to act remains resilient.

Of course, believing something can be done is very different from agreeing on how to do it or who should pay. The cost of these policies would be enormous and the political trade-offs significant. Yet the data suggests that the public mood is not one of resignation.

There is, instead, a sense of possibility.

For ministers grappling with the cost-of-living crisis, that presents both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity lies in a public that is still willing to believe in ambitious action. The challenge is that such belief raises expectations that will be difficult to meet.

In the end, this snapshot of opinion reveals a country that has not given up on the idea of economic fairness. If anything, it shows that many Britons are still waiting for a government bold enough to deliver it.

For years London’s air pollution problem has been a stubborn cloud hanging over the capital. But new research suggests that determined action is finally paying off, with the city emerging as one of the world’s leading success stories in cleaning up urban air.

A new report, Breathe Better: How Leading Cities Have Rapidly Cut Air Pollution, reveals that a group of major global cities have managed to dramatically reduce harmful pollution in just over a decade. Among them is London, where bold policies are helping millions of residents breathe cleaner air than they did just 15 years ago.

The study, produced through the Breathe Cities initiative, examined trends in some of the world’s busiest urban centres and found that many have reduced dangerous air pollutants by 20 to 45 per cent since 2010.

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For Londoners, that progress is particularly significant. The capital has long struggled with high levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter, pollutants linked to asthma, heart disease and other serious illnesses. Heavy traffic, diesel vehicles and dense urban living once combined to create some of the worst air quality in Western Europe.

The impact of clean air policies

But the report highlights how a wave of policies introduced in recent years has begun to change that picture.

Perhaps the most visible measure has been the expansion of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charges the most polluting vehicles to enter large parts of the city. By encouraging drivers to switch to cleaner cars—or avoid driving altogether—the scheme has helped push down nitrogen dioxide levels across London.

At the same time, the city has invested heavily in greener transport. New cycle lanes, improved bus networks and growing numbers of electric vehicles are all helping to reduce pollution from traffic, traditionally one of the biggest sources of dirty air in the capital.

Cleaner buses in particular have played an important role. Transport authorities have gradually introduced electric and hybrid buses, replacing older diesel models and cutting emissions on some of the city’s busiest routes.

Change comes quickly

The report says London’s approach reflects a broader pattern seen in other successful cities: use detailed pollution data to identify the worst hotspots, then target transport, energy and urban planning policies where they will have the greatest impact.

Crucially, the progress has come relatively quickly. The findings challenge the long-held belief that air pollution is an unavoidable consequence of large, economically vibrant cities.

Instead, the evidence shows that meaningful improvements can be achieved within a decade if leaders are willing to take bold action.

Health improvements

For residents of London, the benefits go far beyond clearer skies. Cleaner air means fewer respiratory illnesses, fewer hospital admissions and healthier lives, especially for children and the elderly who are most vulnerable to polluted environments.

The report also suggests London’s progress could serve as a model for other major cities still grappling with severe air pollution.

From stricter vehicle standards to better public transport and smarter city planning, the tools already exist to make a difference.

And if London’s experience is anything to go by, the transformation can happen faster than many people might expect.

For a city once synonymous with smog, that is welcome news indeed: proof that the fight for cleaner air is not only possible, but already well underway. All we need is for governments to take a firm stance against the polluters to help build Our Fair Future for everyone.

Activists staged coordinated supermarket raids across Britain this morning, walking out with boxes of groceries and redistributing them to food banks and local communities.

Supporters of campaign group Take Back Power targeted supermarkets in Manchester, London, Exeter and Truro, filling boxes with food and household essentials before leaving the stores without paying.

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Tax extreme wealth

The group describes itself as a nonviolent civil resistance movement and says it is demanding the Government create a “House of the People”, a permanent citizen-led assembly with powers to tax extreme wealth.

From around 8.30am, small teams entered supermarkets across the four cities and began placing goods into cardboard boxes labelled: “These things are going to those that need them.”

They then left the shops and delivered the items to nearby food bank drop-off points.

In Exeter, five supporters entered the Morrisons supermarket on Prince Charles Road and filled five boxes with produce. Security staff intervened before they could leave, confiscating two of the boxes.

The remaining three boxes were taken away and later dropped at a local food bank collection point.

Meanwhile in London, two activists walked out of a Sainsbury’s in the Lewisham Centre with boxes of food before setting up a stall outside the store to give the items back to members of the public.

Security staff arrived shortly afterwards and police attended the scene at around 9.50am. No arrests had been made and the activists left the area at around 10am.

In Manchester, three supporters filled boxes with groceries at the Tesco store on Parrs Wood Lane in Didsbury. All three left the shop without incident before redistributing the food at a food bank drop-off point inside a nearby Aldi.

Further south in Truro, two supporters loaded boxes with goods from the Sainsbury’s on Treyew Road and left the items at the store’s own food bank collection point.

Food poverty in Britain

A spokesperson for Take Back Power said the action was intended to highlight the scale of food poverty in Britain.

They said: “It is sickening that 6.5 million people in the UK are forced to turn to food banks every year and a third of children under five are living in homes where there is insufficient access to nutritious food.”

The spokesperson added: “This is because our country is in crisis, with billionaires hoarding wealth, whilst ordinary people suffer. We need to tax extreme wealth to fix Britain.”

Among those taking part was Eve Middleton, 25, from Manchester.

She said: “I refuse to sit by while billionaires hoard wealth and capture our democracy.”

Middleton added: “Taxing the super rich is the first simple step to solving these crises.”

Another participant, Ruth Cook, a 74-year-old company director from Somerset, said she was prepared to risk arrest to highlight the issue.

She said: “I’m taking this action and risking arrest because we have a terrible situation in this country. Families are struggling and children are going hungry, while the profits some companies make are obscene.”

Police crackdown

Today’s actions come in the wake of police activity connected to the movement.

Last week officers raided a Quakers meeting house during a nonviolence training session and arrested 15 people. Another person was arrested at their home on Thursday and the homes of seven supporters have reportedly been searched in connection with the campaign.

Campaigners say their protests are driven by what they describe as a deepening hunger crisis in Britain.

According to figures cited by the group, 14 million people in the UK faced the prospect of going hungry last year due to lack of money, while 6.5 million people turned to food banks in 2024.

Take Back Power says it will continue carrying out non-violent actions until the Government responds to its demand for a citizen-led “House of the People” with powers to tax extreme wealth.

Britain’s drive to reach net zero could end up saving ordinary households money, shielding families from volatile gas prices and delivering long-term economic benefits worth several times the cost of the transition, according to new official analysis.

Return on investment

Fresh modelling published by the government’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), suggests the shift away from fossil fuels could bring significant financial gains for households while strengthening the UK economy.

The findings appear in supplementary analysis accompanying the country’s Seventh Carbon Budget, which sets out the path for cutting Britain’s emissions in the years ahead as it moves towards the legally binding target of net zero by 2050.

Far from imposing a heavy economic burden, the report suggests the overall cost of decarbonising the economy would be relatively modest at around 0.2 per cent of GDP per year on average.

And the benefits could be far greater.

According to the CCC’s modelling, every £1 spent on the transition could generate between £2 and £4 in benefits across the economy. Those gains come from lower fuel costs, improved health, reduced climate damage and a more stable energy system.

For households, the biggest financial impact is expected to come from energy bills.

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Vulnerable to energy shocks

Britain currently depends heavily on imported oil and gas, leaving families exposed to unpredictable global markets. When wholesale gas prices surged during recent energy crises, the cost of heating and electricity for millions of households soared.

But the CCC analysis suggests that replacing fossil fuels with domestic renewable power—particularly wind and solar—could dramatically reduce those risks.

Electricity generated from renewables is already far cheaper than gas-fired power in many cases, and once infrastructure is built the fuel itself is effectively free.

As a result, a future energy system powered largely by renewables could mean lower and more stable bills for households, rather than the dramatic price spikes seen in recent years.

Housing and health

The transition would also involve widespread improvements to Britain’s notoriously inefficient housing stock, including better insulation and the rollout of low-carbon heating such as heat pumps.

While there are upfront costs, the CCC says these measures could ultimately cut energy consumption in homes, meaning families spend less keeping their houses warm.

The report also highlights a range of “co-benefits” that could translate into financial gains for the wider public.

Cleaner air from reduced fossil-fuel use could lead to fewer health problems linked to pollution. Warmer homes could cut illness linked to cold and damp. And shifts towards walking, cycling and cleaner transport could reduce pressure on the NHS.

Taken together, these improvements could save the UK billions of pounds in health and economic costs each year, according to the analysis.

Green roadmap

The Seventh Carbon Budget itself maps out how Britain can continue cutting emissions through the late 2030s and early 2040s, keeping the country on track for its 2050 climate target.

Key changes are expected to include electric cars replacing petrol and diesel vehicles, low-carbon heating in homes, and a power grid dominated by renewable energy.

Crucially, the CCC stresses that many of these technologies are already becoming cheaper and more widely available.

For households worried about the cost of going green, the message from the watchdog is clear: the price of doing nothing could be far higher.

In the long run, moving to a cleaner energy system may not just help protect the climate: it could also help protect the family finances.

But if there is any chance of such a green transition, the government will need to implement policies that enable ordinary people to afford it today without waiting for benefits in the future.

For a party that claims to speak for “ordinary people”, new polling suggests Reform UK is out of tune with the mainstream mood of Britain when it comes to the experiences of half the nation: women.

A new survey by YouGov reveals a country that broadly believes the job of achieving gender equality is unfinished and that is willing to back practical measures to address it. Yet among Reform voters, opinion appears to be moving in the opposite direction.

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The national mood on women’s rights

The headline finding is striking. Roughly half of Britons (50%) believe more still needs to be done to achieve gender equality, compared with just 19% who think equality has already been achieved and 22% who believe efforts have gone too far.

Dig into specific issues and the sense that progress remains incomplete becomes even clearer.

Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) think more action is required to address sexual misconduct, while 63% believe schools should do more to tackle sexism and misogyny. Meanwhile 59% say Britain still has work to do to close the gender pay gap, with majorities also supporting stronger action on women’s workplace health and equal representation at work.

In short, the broad public mood is hardly one of complacency.

Even more revealing is the willingness of Britons to support specific reforms. The most popular proposal—ensuring employees doing the same job receive equal pay—commands overwhelming backing from 86% of the public.

Other measures also attract strong majorities: 67% support equal prize money for men and women in sport, 65% back “blind hiring” processes to remove bias in recruitment, and 64% would support mandatory classes for boys on misogyny in schools.

And this is not just abstract support for legislation. The survey also finds most Britons say they would personally challenge sexist language among friends or family, with around three quarters saying they would feel comfortable doing so.

Reform out of touch

Yet Reform voters stand out as clear outliers.

According to the same polling, fewer than one in five Reform supporters (19%) think more needs to be done on gender equality. Nearly half instead believe the push for equality has already gone too far.

That is a dramatic divergence from the wider electorate, where most Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green voters—between 63% and 81%—say more action is needed. Even Conservative voters are split, with 34% saying more should be done and 32% saying efforts have gone too far.

On policy, the gap is even more stark.

Reform supporters overwhelmingly oppose several measures that enjoy broader public support including paid leave for period pain, classes in schools tackling misogyny, and targets to increase women’s representation in senior leadership.

The fish rots from the head

No doubt Reform supporters are taking a cue from Reform leadership, where numerous headlines have emerged recently of Farage’s dismissive attitude toward women, as well as weird comments from other party leaders about their reproductive rights.

Farage is mistaken if he thinks he can bundle women’s rights in with some “woke” agenda that is easy to dismiss with so-called “common sense”. If the majority of Britons believe gender equality still requires action—and are prepared to support concrete policies to advance it—then Reform appears to be marching to a rather different drum.

For a movement that prides itself on tapping into the “real” views of the nation, that is an awkward place to be.

Because if this survey is anything to go by, the British public may be far more comfortable with further progress on equality than Reform UK would like to admit.

Activists from the cost-of-living campaign group Take Back Power have been arrested at the Quaker Meeting House in Westminster by police in what appears to be the latest sign Britain is sliding towards a police state where even non-violent protest training can lead to detention.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed officers carried out an operation targeting activists. Fifteen people were arrested during the operation, which police said was intended to disrupt alleged “plans for mass shoplifting” linked to protest activity.

But critics say the move raises troubling questions about the state of protest rights in modern Britain.

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Who are Take Back Power?

Take Back Power describes itself as a “non-violent civil resistance group” seeking sweeping economic reform and a redistribution of wealth. Its central demand is the creation of a permanent citizens’ assembly, dubbed a “House of the People”, which organisers say would have the authority to tax extreme wealth and hold governments to account.

The campaign argues that ordinary Britons are struggling while the wealthy grow richer. As one statement from organisers put it, millions of people are “working harder than ever, yet falling further behind”.

Activists linked to the group have dumped manure in the lobby of the Ritz hotel and thrown apple crumble and custard at the Crown Jewels display at the Tower of London during a protest about inequality.

More controversially, the campaign has discussed organising so-called “take backs” in which activists remove food from supermarkets and redistribute it to local communities.

Pre-emptive arrests

Police say the arrests were aimed at stopping the “take backs” before they could happen. Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman said: “There is a clear difference between lawful protest and criminal acts. This evening’s operation tackled a group who we have grounds to suspect were planning to steal from shops in a large, targeted and organised way. Theft is a crime and the public expect the police to deal with it—which is exactly what we have done today”.

But critics say the operation reveals a far deeper issue. The activists involved were reportedly attending what supporters describe as training for non-violent protest. If that is the case, some argue, the question is no longer simply about supposed shoplifting but about whether peaceful dissent is being criminalised.

A Take Back Power spokesperson said: “The police arrested fifteen ordinary people in a place of worship for discussing nonviolent civil disobedience. This draconian overreach shows what the state is willing to do to protect corporate profits and billionaires, while ordinary people struggle to put food on the table”.

The criminalisation of protest

Britain has long prided itself on the right to protest. Yet in recent years that right has been steadily narrowed through tougher policing powers, new public order laws and increasingly aggressive enforcement.

Campaigners warn that the line between preventing crime and suppressing dissent is becoming dangerously blurred. After all, planning a protest is not a crime. Attending a workshop about civil resistance is not a crime. But in the modern Britain of pre-emptive arrests and sweeping public order powers, critics fear the police are acting first and asking questions later.

In the context of these arrests, a Take Back Power spokesperson said: “The state is scared of civil disobedience because it works. But when the super-rich have captured our politics, nonviolent civil disobedience is the only choice we have to take back our power. Now more than ever, we need everyone to join us”.

If people can be arrested simply for attending a meeting where non-violent protest tactics are discussed, the implications are chilling. The state may insist it is merely stopping crime before it happens. But to many observers the message is stark: in today’s Britain, even learning how to protest peacefully may be enough to bring the police knocking at the door.

They are the coloured bands that have come to symbolise the planet’s rising temperatures and now they are rolling through town on the side of a double decker bus.

In a bold and highly visible statement about the climate crisis, Reading Buses has unveiled a brand-new electric vehicle wrapped in the famous Climate Stripes, transforming cutting edge climate science into a moving work of art on the streets of Reading.

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The science behind the stripes

The dramatic design, created by climate scientist Ed Hawkins, features a series of coloured stripes that shift from cool blues to deep, intense reds. Each band represents a year of global temperatures, charting more than a century of warming in one simple but powerful image. The effect is stark. The further along the bus you look, the hotter the colours become.

Now, instead of appearing solely in lecture halls, social media posts and climate marches, the stripes will be seen by thousands of commuters every single day as the zero emission bus glides silently through the town centre and surrounding neighbourhoods.

A conversation starter

Far from being just a striking livery choice, the Climate Stripes bus has been designed to spark conversation. Passengers waiting at bus stops are already stopping to stare. Children point at the colours. Adults ask what they mean. The beauty of the stripes lies in their simplicity. There are no complicated graphs or technical jargon, just a visual story that invites people to ask questions about global warming, pollution and what can be done to tackle them.

By placing the design on public transport, Reading Buses is sending a clear message that climate action is not an abstract concept but something that plays out in everyday choices such as how we travel. Every journey taken on the electric bus rather than in a petrol or diesel car becomes part of that story.

The new electric fleet

The Climate Stripes bus forms part of a wider launch of 24 new zero emission electric vehicles, unveiled at the company’s depot on Great Knollys Street. The fleet will operate on some of the town’s busiest 24-hour routes, ensuring the climate message reaches all corners of the borough at all hours of the day and night.

The investment has been backed by Reading Borough Council, which secured Government funding through the Department for Transport ZEBRA scheme to help cover the additional cost of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, said; “I am beyond excited to be launching our first ever battery electric buses at Reading Buses. In addition to being zero emission, they bring a significant improvement in journey quality for our customers onboard.”

Councillor John Ennis, Lead Councillor for Climate Strategy and Transport, said: “Not only will they provide passengers with a smooth, comfortable journey, they will be carrying thousands of people around the borough every day without emitting any harmful, polluting fumes.”

As the red stripes blaze against the winter sky and the electric engine hums almost silently beneath, Reading’s newest bus is doing more than carrying passengers. It is carrying a warning, a conversation starter and, perhaps, a glimmer of hope that small local changes can add up to something much bigger.

It billed itself as the insurgent voice of the people. But now Reform UK has been dramatically downgraded in a political scorecard after campaigners concluded the party is backtracking on promises to bring Britain’s broken utilities back into public hands.

The damning reassessment comes from campaign group We Own It, which monitors where political parties really stand on public ownership of essential services such as water, rail and energy. And their verdict is clear: Reform has slipped backwards.

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The U-turn

At the last general election, Reform’s manifesto talked tough. It pledged a model of “50% public ownership and 50% UK pension funds” for key utilities, a policy pitched as giving ordinary Britons a stake in the nation’s infrastructure. But according to the updated scorecard, the party’s rhetoric has failed to translate into firm commitments or concrete action.

Campaigners say Reform has refused to back calls for full, permanent public ownership of failing water companies. Most notably, its MPs have not signed a public pledge to bring Thames Water into public ownership without compensation for shareholders, despite the company’s mounting debts, pollution scandals and public outrage over sewage dumping.

Instead, party leader Nigel Farage has poured cold water on sweeping nationalisation. He has spoken only of “short-term partial nationalisation” in limited circumstances: language that leaves the door wide open for services to be handed straight back to private investors once the crisis passes. In other words: socialise the losses, privatise the profits.

We Own It also highlighted Reform’s failure to commit to public ownership of energy companies, even as households continue to grapple with soaring bills. Nor has the party endorsed taking rail franchises permanently into public control. Reform is now the only party analysed by the campaign that gets a red cross on every category.

Sovereign wealth or donor wealth?

One of the few flagship ideas touted by Reform figures has been the creation of a sovereign wealth fund that might acquire strategic assets such as British Steel. But critics say this selective approach sidesteps the everyday essentials—water, energy and transport—that millions rely on, while leaving lucrative sectors exposed to private equity and overseas investors.

The downgrade also comes amid scrutiny of who funds Reform’s rise. The party has benefited from large donations from wealthy backers, including businessman Christopher Harborne, whose multimillion-pound contributions have bolstered party coffers. Detractors argue that such financial dependence inevitably shapes policy priorities.

Say-do-gap

We Own It’s scoring system assesses not only manifesto pledges, but public statements, voting behaviour and the likelihood of a party actually delivering on promises. In Reform’s case, the campaign concluded that the gap between headline-grabbing announcements and practical follow-through had simply grown too wide.

For voters drawn to Reform’s anti-establishment message, the downgrade raises awkward questions. Is the party truly prepared to wrest control of essential services from private shareholders? Or are bold slogans merely a stepping stone to power, after which cosy compromises will protect dodgy donors and polluting paymasters?

As Britain’s water pipes leak, energy bills bite and rail passengers endure cancellations and chaos, the stakes could hardly be higher. Reform UK may talk the language of disruption, but when it comes to public ownership, the party looks less like a revolutionary force and more like a familiar ally of moneyed interests.

In what organisers are calling a historic stand against the rise of unaccountable artificial intelligence, worried Brits took to the streets of London this weekend in the UK’s first ever anti-AI protest march with cries of “PAUSE AI” ringing through King’s Cross.

Dubbed the March Against the Machines, the demonstration organised by campaign groups Pull the Plug and Pause AI began with angry crowds gathering outside the UK office of OpenAI on Pentonville Road, the controversial American AI giant behind ChatGPT and other generative technologies.

What started as a spirited rally quickly turned into a broader tour of Big Tech HQs around the capital from OpenAI’s London base to nearby offices of other AI developers as campaigners demanded a fundamental rethink of the high-speed rollout of AI.

One march organiser announced to the crowd that what we are experiencing with AI is not “progress”, rather “reckless” and demanded governments and corporations hit the pause button. Such recklessness is apparently recognised even within the AI industry, with one safety leader from AI firm Anthropic recently quitting their job claiming “the world is in peril”.

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Millions of jobs at risk

Many of the demonstrators—ordinary people with jobs exposed to the ravages of AI—made their feelings abundantly clear: they believe that AI is not the future of British prosperity, but a scourge that could plunge the country into unemployment chaos.

One placard, held aloft near the OpenAI office, read simply: “Don’t let AI decide your future”, a sentiment that clearly resonated with marchers. Recent research shows that a majority of UK adults fear AI will increase unemployment, with many worrying that their own roles could be automated in the next decade.

This anxiety—stoked by stories of layoffs in tech and beyond—has helped fuel a movement that believes AI could hollow out whole industries unless it is properly regulated. Protesters accused tech bosses of prioritising profits and shareholder payouts over the livelihoods of ordinary workers.

Democracy on the line

But it wasn’t just jobs that had demonstrators fuming: many voiced deep unease about the role AI could play in undermining democratic processes, not to mention contribute to a surveillance state and unaccountable autonomous warfare.

With social media platforms increasingly awash with AI-generated content, fake videos and algorithm-driven political messaging, critics argue that these tools are already being used to distort public debate and manipulate elections. A recent UK study found that a large portion of Brits are worried AI could be used to sway voters and push propaganda. Another study shows how AI increases misinformation, which makes crisis events even worse than they already are.

The Pull the Plug campaign insists that “ordinary people should have a real say in how AI is used in our lives”: a clear jab at the current dominance of Silicon Valley corporations in shaping the future of this transformative technology.

What happens next?

The march was peaceful and legal, but the message was unmistakable: Brits are fed up with rapid AI rollout, rising uncertainty, and what they see as a lack of meaningful public input.

Whether this march marks the beginning of a broader UK backlash against AI remains to be seen. But Britain’s first anti-AI protest certainly made one thing clear: there’s a growing public line in the sand between supposed innovation and the wellbeing and dignity of ordinary people.

Britain has had enough. A new poll shows that ordinary people are turning their backs on the corporate fat cats and financial schemers who have been siphoning wealth off the economy while working families struggle to make ends meet.

The stark findings from a nationally representative survey, commissioned by the Fairness Foundation and carried out in January 2026, reveal a deep-seated British disgust with business models that are perceived as “extractive” rather than genuinely creative. In other words, voters are sick of companies that take and don’t make—and they want policymakers to act accordingly.

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Makers vs takers

According to the research, the public clearly distinguishes between firms that create genuine value and those that extract wealth without giving much back. Tech innovators who bring new products to market and drug developers tackling major diseases still enjoy broad support. But firms that exploit monopolies, dodge tax, rip off consumers, or squeeze workers are increasingly taboo.

The message from voters could not be clearer: reward hard work and innovation; punish exploitation and rent-seeking. One of the most popular explanations offered by respondents for why certain businesses are unacceptable? Because “the system is rewarding the takers, not the makers.”

A nation fed up with a rigged system

The polling comes amid rising concerns about inequality, stagnant wages, and a sense that the economic deck is stacked against ordinary Britons. This evidence echoes recent debates about fairness and opportunity in British society, which have dominated headlines from the cost-of-living crisis to accusations of elite capture in business and politics.

Indeed, the Fairness Foundation’s own framework—the so-called Fair Necessities—argues that a truly fair society must ensure that people have their basic needs met, that opportunities aren’t blocked by structural barriers, and that rewards correspond to real contributions.

Many British voters clearly feel the system has failed these tests. Rather than seeing wealth created through invention and investment, they see profits being made by companies that game the tax system, cash in on shortages, or maximise returns through ruthless cost-cutting at the expense of staff and suppliers.

What voters really think

In the poll, fictional companies were used to test public attitudes—with striking results. A firm that developed an innovative new hairdryer that improved efficiency and reduced prices was widely approved of. In contrast, a water supplier with a regional monopoly that hikes bills drew widespread disapproval. Firms that specialised in tax avoidance or reselling tickets at inflated prices were met with outright hostility.

Interestingly, views on these business models remained consistent across political divides. While Conservatives were marginally more supportive of most company types than Labour voters, all groups showed strong resistance to extractive models. Women and lower-income respondents tended to be more hostile to exploitative practices.

What happens next?

Experts say the poll gives politicians a clear mandate: champion genuine wealth creation and clamp down on rent-seeking and exploitative firms. The Fairness Foundation believes that understanding the difference between “creating” and “extracting” wealth is crucial for rebuilding faith in the economy and strengthening the UK’s social contract.

Critics, however, warn that such attitudes risk stifling business and innovation if misapplied, and that the distinction between makers and takers is not always straightforward in practice.

But for many voters, the message is simple: Britain should reward effort, ingenuity and contribution, not schemes that skim off the top while leaving the rest of society to foot the bill.

A new report from the Trussell Trust has lifted the lid on how climate change, rising costs and government policies are now fuelling hunger and forcing millions more Britons to rely on food banks—with the most vulnerable paying the price.

The report lays bare an alarming truth: Britain’s cost-of-living squeeze is not just an economic story but an environmental one too. Climate shocks like floods, heatwaves and spiralling food prices don’t just damage the countryside—they devastate low-income households already struggling to make ends meet.

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Climate costs hitting households hardest

The impact of environmental change hits those on the lowest incomes hardest. Households with minimal savings—the very people who are most likely to rely on food banks—are unable to absorb even small increases to costs caused by climate disruption. Food prices are rising as a result of weather-related crop failures and global shocks, adding hundreds of pounds to annual shopping bills, while energy price volatility hits poorer families hardest.

With 90 per cent of food bank users behind on utility bills and living on extremely limited buffers, even minor cost jumps can push people past breaking point. According to the report, climate-related food price shocks and flood damage to homes and infrastructure could add as much as £3,000 a year to household costs for struggling families.

Social security system under strain

The report also highlights the failure of the UK’s social security safety net to protect people from climate-linked hardship. A staggering 87 per cent of people referred to food banks were receiving social security—yet changes in policy and benefit design mean that support is no longer enough to keep pace with rising costs and climate stressors.

Experts warn that without urgent reform, the double whammy of climate change and inadequate welfare will only deepen dependency on emergency food aid. Opportunities exist to link climate action with job creation and better support systems, but the review says such options have not been harnessed.

Care, mental health and community breakdown

Beyond money, the report paints a bleak picture of how environmental pressures intersect with social issues. Around half of food bank users experience mental health issues—much higher than the general population—and extreme weather events like heatwaves and flooding are linked to spikes in anxiety, depression and trauma.

Meanwhile, carers—many of them women—are struggling to juggle rising childcare and care costs with low wages and insecure work, a problem made worse by poor transport infrastructure and rising fuel prices.

The report also highlights that social isolation is rampant among food bank users, with nearly a third reporting minimal or no contact with family and friends. Poor public transport, digital exclusion and lack of community spaces are making it harder for people to build the resilience they need in times of crisis.

A call for action

Britain stands at a crossroads, the report says: without a national plan that tackles climate change and poverty together, food bank use will continue to rise and the cost of hunger—both social and economic—will balloon and we will never build Our Fair Future.