Poverty and inequality are financial challenges for local authorities and threaten the cohesion of their communities.
As local authorities seek to reduce homelessness, increasing the accessibility of the private rental sector has been found to be key. Tenants who might otherwise present as homeless can be assisted into a private tenancy with a council-backed rent bond guarantee scheme, while increasing the available housing in the sector and working to ensure landlords…
An LGiU briefing published earlier this year outlined the findings by Green Park on diversity within local councils in the UK. This blog follows up to provide a summary of the state of diversity in Scottish local government, examining what barriers to diversity exist, and how local government can break down these barriers to be…
The creation of poverty and inequality commissions is one method deployed to address rising levels of poverty in the UK and build a more inclusive model of governance. The following briefing will examine both the national Poverty and Inequality Commission and a number of smaller city-based commissions across the UK, in an effort to explore…
This briefing covers a report published by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee on the process of migration from existing benefits (the legacy system) to Universal Credit. Migration is currently by either natural migration, when the circumstances of claimants change, or through managed migration, which will apply to all remaining claimants of legacy…
This briefing covers a recent Trussell Trust report, which examines the impact of the five week waiting period for Universal Credit (UC) on food bank use and other consequences of financial hardship. The analysis demonstrates a substantial increase in foodbank use accompanying UC roll out.
This briefing deals with two recent JRF reports on the voting behaviour and priorities of low income voters. Taken together, they vividly illustrate the needs and priorities of people living on low incomes. Low income groups have become more important in recent elections, and political parties are constructing their offers accordingly.
There are 14.3 million people in the UK in poverty. Despite many policy initiatives by central and local government, the poverty rate has hardly changed since 2000. So what can be done to better understand poverty in the UK, asks Kerry Furguson and how should policy makers address it?
This report, from the Social Metrics Commission, provides both a detailed overview of the extent and nature of poverty in the UK today and original analysis that shows how this has changed since the first year where the data for the Commission’s measurement framework is available.
This briefing covers a report published by an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in July 2019 on Universal Credit (UC). The report makes a large number of recommendations for reform and its conclusions are consistent with a range of expert opinion.
Councils across the world support Pride and the LGBT+ community every year, but what about in Northern Ireland? LGiU’s Isla Whateley blogs about her experiences volunteering with Belfast Pride and how local government there supports Pride despite the region’s difficulties