We call on this government to break the cycle of poverty

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Long term solutions are needed to meet the biggest issues faced in the UK today - the housing crisis, low wages and climate change (Getty)

Many of us buy into the idea of progress and that life improves for younger people and future generations. Yet, today in 2022, almost two-thirds of young people fear for their generation’s future.

For years, it feels like we have been spiralling from one crisis to the next. More than one in five people in the UK live in poverty. Things only seem to be getting worse, as a further 1.3 million people are set to be plunged into poverty by 2023.

Whilst we wholeheartedly back emergency measures to ease the cost of living crisis for those who need the support, emergency measures will only provide relief in the short term. They will not stop these crises from happening again.

Together, we are calling on leaders with their hands on the levers to go further. We must fix the emergency whilst also addressing the root causes of the crises we face, to break the cycle of poverty for future generations.

Long-term solutions are needed to meet the biggest issues faced in the UK today - the housing crisis, low wages and climate change. Dealing with these issues will help us to protect the environmental, social, economic and cultural wellbeing of future generations.

We are demanding that the government breaks the cycle of poverty for good. We have three demands: create decent and affordable homes for all, end the low-wage economy and invest in young people, and build a greener, sustainable future and create millions of well-paid green jobs.

Young people and future generations deserve a fair shot at life. Together, we can build a better future.

The Big Issue Group

Adrian Ramsay & Carla Denyer, co-leader of Green Party of England and Wales

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Baroness Mary Goudie

Baroness Sue Garden

Breakthrough Party

British Medical Association

Business Declares

Carnegie UK

Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity

Chair of Homes for All UK

Claudia Webbe MP

Dan Carden MP

Faith for the Climate

Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development

Fuel Poverty Action

Glassdoor Homeless charity

Global Action Plan

GND Rising

Greener Practice

Ian Paisley MP

Intergenerational Foundation

Jack Monroe

Jane Davidson, author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country

John Mcdonnell MP

Julia Baroness Brown of Cambridge

Kwajo Tweneboa

Lord Andrew Stunell

Lord David Blunkett

Lord Jeffrey Archer

Lord John Shipley

Lord Martin Rees

Lord Philip Hunt

Marsha De Cordova MP

Martyn Day MP

Mohammed Yasin MP

National Education Union

Peter Aldous MP

Psychologists for Social Change

Rachel Maskell MP

Roman Krznaric

RSPB

Shout Out UK

Simon Birkett, founder of the cross-party Campaign for Clean Air in London

Stakeholder Forum for Sustainable Development

Steve Chalk MBE

Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK)

Tim Jackson, economist

Wen (Women’s Environmental Network)

Wholegrain Digital

Women’s Budget Group

Z2K

You can join the action today by signing our open letter to demand a better future.

Leave the clocks alone

Every year there is the (rather boring) issue of changing the clocks. To try to satisfy all constituencies, is there any mileage in moving the clocks 30 minutes and then leaving them alone?

I realize that longitude must “kick in” at some point but it seems logical to suggest that everywhere from say, Romania to Portugal, should have the same time zone.

To cite just one anomaly, why is Spain an hour ahead of the UK when much of the country is west of the Greenwich meridian?

Dr Anthony Ingleton

Sheffield

Suella Braverman needs to go

The levelling up secretary, whatever that title may mean, is himself lowered by his own opinion. Michael Gove has expressed that “Suella is a first-rate, front-rank politician” and should retain her post as home secretary which, lest in the carnage it may have slipped our minds, is one of the four great offices of state.

Many may regard his effort at justification of the egregious in the face of the obvious as an affront to common sense. Suella Braverman must go now.

Once the Tories’ justification for their continued existence in government provided to them by a mandate given in the 2019 election is removed, the rest of their “first-rate, front-rank” politicians will follow.

Only the ballot box can ensure that – and what a relief it would be.

David Nelmes  

Newport

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

Austerity without a mandate

Britain is polling an almost two-thirds majority for a general election now.

Sunak’s regime looks like it will propose George Osbourne’s 2010 austerity in a full reset. This is the polar opposite of Boris Johnson’s 2019 Tory election mandate.

Enough! If Sunak wants to propose such a radical change, there must first be a general election. Government works for us and would do well to remember that. Anything less is dictatorship.

Ian Henderson

Norwich