The ‘time has come’ for a Universal Basic Income

“A universal basic income will put a solid foundation beneath everybody so that they can have a life with security and stop worrying about everything."

~ Andy Burnham

Basic Income for Greater Manchester:
Plans for a feasible, affordable and popular pilot

This report sets out a practical pathway to funding a politically valuable and socially necessary intervention to evaluate Basic Income in Greater Manchester.

This is a unique opportunity for Greater Manchester to pioneer in preventing crises of homelessness, mental and physical ill-health, crime and inactivity. Dealing with these issues downstream costs the country a fortune. Basic Income will complement GMCA’s values and current strategy to reduce homelessness.

Published February 2025

‘Greater Manchester Leading The Way – Andy For Mayor’
Manifesto 2024

“The evidence from our Housing First pilot is that, if you set people up to succeed, the vast majority will and, in turn, that saves money on crisis provision in other public services. For this reason, we believe the logical next step, after the success of our Housing First pilot, is to bring forward a Basic Income pilot… This would fit well with our new Live Well concept and would test whether a different, more preventative way of supporting people would lead to better use of public funds.

  • What is UBI?

    A Universal Basic Income UBI would be a sum of money paid by the Government:

    • Universal - to everyone;

    • Basic - to cover the necessities of life;

    • Income - regularly, for people to spend on whatever they thought was best.

    Pondering money

  • Why do we need it?

    Cost of living Crisis…Climate Crisis…Mental Health Crisis…

    “Basic Income doesn’t solve every problem. But it makes every problem easier to solve”

    ~ Sandhya Anantharaman

    We are exploring the possibility of a local pilot and are excited that GM Mayor Andy Burnham has publicly backed this idea.

  • Want to know more?

    Looking over Manchester

“UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME IS AN IDEA THAT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED.”

~ MAYOR ANDY BURNHAM, 2023