The 1980s decision to embrace the market, union-busting and deregulation, together with disinvestment in public housing and rolling privatisation is one of history’s great political blunders.

The findings of our four Breadline Britain, and Poverty and Social Exclusion, surveys since 1983 show that poverty in the UK is at a 30-year high. The rise is not explained by a sudden explosion of a culture of poverty, nor by out-of-control benefits. Rather, it is because of a surge in the numbers of working poor. It’s about the way that the politically driven shift in power from the workforce to corporations has shrunk the share of the cake going to the bottom half of the labour force, leaving growing numbers at the mercy of low-pay, zero-hours and insecure contracts.