New collection of essays by Conservative MPs offers fresh ideas for tackling poverty across the UK

24^th May 2023

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED | 24^th MAY 2023 00:01

For Media Enquires please contact mike.mavrommatis@respublica.org.uk

 

New collection of essays by Conservative MPs offers fresh ideas for tackling poverty across the UK

A new book published by the think-tank ResPublica and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has collected and recommended a range of new policies advocated by Conservative MPs from across the parliamentary party, aimed at improving life for Britain’s least well-off.

The Right Response: Conservative Ideas to Tackle Perennial Poverty, which is launched on 24^th May at an event in Parliament, offers recommendations across a range of policy areas, from expanding the apprenticeship system and improving job security, to helping families to save for the future and remain in stable relationships at home. The editors, the academic political theorist Dr Christopher Fear and the Director of ResPublica Phillip Blond, said:

‘While our view is that political theory has its place, we nevertheless share with the parliamentarian authors who have contributed to this volume the view that addressing the endemic and perennial cost of poverty and class in practice remains fundamental to any Conservative renewal. With that in mind, this volume presents essays by twelve serving Conservative MPs on the causes, realities, and effects of poverty in today’s Britain. Each chapter contains new ideas in specific policy areas that the authors (and we) believe should be considered and discussed as the “levelling up” mantra is developed into a concrete programme of practical Conservative government action.’

Policy recommendations in the essays include:

• Government should fully fund apprenticeships for 16- to 18-year-olds, as it does A Levels;
• App-based businesses can and should be made as accountable to their employees as traditional companies already are, in the context of the gig economy;
• Increase spending and build the necessary occupational health infrastructure that reduces the chances of people falling out of work altogether if they suffer long-term injury or ill-heath;
• Extend fiscal devolution and give local leaders the spending power they need, including the power to raise and invest funds locally;
• Craft a ‘top-up’ scheme where citizens’ savings are topped-up by Government under certain conditions;
• Local Authorities should receive 100% of Right to Buy receipts, and these receipts must be used to fund like-for-like tenure replacements;

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Around one in five of our population (20%) were in poverty in 2020/21 – that’s 13.4 million people. Of these:
  • 9 million were working-age adults
  • 9 million were children
  • 7 million were pensioners.
• April 2022 saw the greatest fall in the value of the basic rate of unemployment benefits since 1972
• As of November 2022, more than 7 in 10 families are going without essentials, around 6 in 10 cannot afford an unexpected expense, more than half are in arrears and around a quarter use credit to pay essential bills.

Source: UK Poverty 2023, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Essays’ titles and contributors:

The Left–Right Consensus on Levelling Up, by Danny Kruger MP and Imogen Sinclair

Levelling Up the Gig Economy, by Damian Collins MP

A New Generation of Apprentices, by Tom Tugendhat MP

Freeports as a Route Out of Poverty, by Tom Hunt MP

Buying British: Reducing the UK’s Dependence on Foreign Imports, by Sir John Redwood MP

Fiscal Devolution: Lessons from the Continent, by David Simmonds MP

Reforming Welfare through Social Security, by Stephen Crabb MP

Boosting Britain’s Financial Health, by John Penrose MP

A New Deal on Social Housing, by Bob Blackman MP

Rebuilding Britain’s Savings, by Paul Maynard MP

Levelling Up for Children and Parents, by Miriam Cates MP

Marriage and Cohabitation, by Sir John Hayes MP

 

About ResPublica

ResPublica is one of the country’s most successful public policy think tanks. We’ve achieved by this being radical in our thought, and persistent in our representations to policymakers, all based on rigorously – evidenced proposals. Our work has been adopted by both Government and Opposition, and we frequently contribute evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees. Our ideas and recommendations have been endorsed by regulators, high-profile commissions, leading commentators, faith leaders, senior civil servants and entrepreneurs. Our work is consistently featured in local, national and international media outlets and we often provide viewpoints and commentary for current affairs discussions. We look ahead of the curve, and our publications and events remain independent from political agendas, Whitehall and private enterprise, and are guided by our political philosophy and our mission.

 

– ENDS –

Press enquiries to press@respublica.org.uk.

---