This book explores what a good society without poverty could look like and identifies policies and practices to support it. There is now widespread acceptance that neoliberalism has gone too far, while the welfare state established after the Second World War is in decline. Yet no alternative approaches have so far emerged. This book helps to fill that gap.

It is based on a five-year programme of research supported by the Webb Memorial Trust. Research partners include leading organisations such as Compass, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, the Town and Country Planning Association...

In the intervening years, we have almost succeeded, though destitution’s close family relative – poverty – is still with us. Poverty spoils lives, costs public money and destabilises social relations in a cycle that passes from one generation to the next. We may have done away with the humiliation of the 19th-century soup kitchen, but we are fast replacing it with the humiliation of the 21st-century foodbank.² Given the scale of our social, economic and technological advance, it is remarkable that we allow this continuing stain on our society.

The persistence of poverty was the starting point for the Webb...

This chapter examines our understanding of poverty and reviews its history since Beatrice Webb’s 1909 Minority Report.¹ It reaches three main conclusions. First, the language that informed the development of the welfare state has lost its power. Second, the way that organisations working to reduce poverty describe their work may be doing more harm than good. Third, we need to reframe the way we think about poverty.

Organisations working to end poverty have come to recognise that the narrative which has informed approaches to poverty since the 1942 Beveridge Report no longer works. So-called ‘expert’ opinion about poverty is out...

The June 2016 referendum on whether to leave or remain in the European Union exposed the divisions in British society. Among various fault lines – political, demographic, social and economic – the starkest revelation was the collapse of trust between the political class and the people. Trust is the most basic building block of society and without it, it is almost impossible to move forward. For many, the decision to leave the European Union was a wake-up call to examine the state of British society. That is what this chapter sets out to do.

The gloom that descended on people...

This chapter describes what people want from their society. It uses the first of the three questions that framed the Trust’s research: what is a good society without poverty?

The chapter starts by explaining why deciding what we want as a society matters. Next comes a brief description of the key findings from the research, followed by an explanation of the Trust’s approach and a description of the multiple methods used to reach conclusions. Finally, the chapter sets out what the Trust has learned from the various studies undertaken.

We need to decide what kind of society we want because,...

This chapter begins by comparing the society we have with the society we want, and then considers how to close the gap. This brings us to our second framing question: ‘How do we achieve a good society without poverty?’

This has been a central question for social reformers since Beatrice Webb’s 1909 Minority Report challenged society to end destitution. Having considered some of the main methods to achieve this, the Trust research suggests that this is the wrong approach. The first question to ask is not ‘how to do it?’ but ‘who does it?’

It is evident that the society...

Chapter Three suggested that the key to producing a good society without poverty is the pursuit of five principles through a process in which everyone is involved. To recap, these principles are:

1. We all have a decent basic standard of living.

2. So we are secure and free to choose how to lead our lives.

3. Developing our potential and flourishing materially and emotionally.

4. Participating, contributing and treating all with care and respect.

5. And building a fair and sustainable future for the next generations.

This chapter considers the question of ‘who does what?’ to achieve these principles. While it cannot prescribe what...

A key message of this book is the need to rethink the problem of poverty. The welfare state narrative that informed social policy in the 30 years following the Beveridge Report has lost its power, and needs to be replaced if we are to make progress. ‘Poverty’ cannot be the starting point because the word divides people emotionally and politically, so that policies to address poverty always have limited support.

This book has developed an alternative formulation based on building ‘the society we want’. The advantage of this approach is that it frames the task positively. Rather than solving a...