Skip to main content
Busy commuters crossing the road outside Liverpool Street Station.
Report
Narrative change

How to build lasting support to solve UK poverty

This summary explores public attitudes towards poverty in the UK. It recommends a set of tested strategies to build a deeper understanding of how poverty happens and the changes needed to address it.

Written by:
The Frameworks Institute
Date published:

This research by the FrameWorks Institute shows that we can help people see that poverty exists and understand its impact. We can build support for a robust welfare system. We can inspire widespread belief that change is possible and that poverty can be solved. And we can mobilise action to do so.

It recommends telling a new story that:

  • starts with poverty, not politics or ideology
  • says why tackling poverty matters by relating to shared values of compassion and justice
  • is brought to life by messengers who embody these values
  • explains how the economy locks people in poverty
  • explains how poverty can be solved by positioning the economy as a designed system that can be redesigned; and benefits as helping to loosen poverty’s grip
  • uses examples, rather than statistics, to show that poverty exists and to demonstrate its characteristics and impacts
  • shows how we rely on public systems, painting a clear picture of what they look like
  • counters fatalism with clear solutions that make a tangible difference.
Two people sat, backs to camera, facing a laptop and other music editing equipment in a recording studio

This report is part of the narrative change topic.

Find out more about our work in this area.

Discover more about narrative change