The future of the left since 1884

Publication

18 January 2025

Seizing the opportunity

The treatment of our social care workforce is a national scandal. England’s 1.6 million care workers suffer from endemic low pay and poor conditions, with almost half of care workers paid below the real living wage, and many earning below the legal minimum wage when travel time is taken into account. There are few opportunities for progression, with senior care workers earning just £3 per shift more than care workers. A third of the workforce have received no training for their role; three in ten care workers are on zero-hours contracts, nine times the average for the economy as a whole; and few care workers receive more than the legal minimum in terms of sick pay or pensions.

The government is currently legislating for a fair pay agreement in the sector. In this report, Fabian Society general secretary Joe Dromey and research manager Ben Cooper makes the case for an ambitious and fully funded fair pay agreement in order to improve pay and conditions, tackle the workforce crisis, and improve the quality of care.

Seizing the opportunity Social Care / Employment

In the Fast Lane

22 April 2025

Alex Mayer MP makes the case that improving our bus network is crucial to fulfilling Labour’s growth mission.

In the Fast Lane Transport

Mature Decisions

17 January 2025

Senior researcher Sasjkia Otto explores options for pensioner social security reform, in the near and longer term, for consideration as part of the government’s pensions review.

Mature decisions Pensions

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The Fabian Review

Winter 2025, Volume 137 - No.1

This edition of the Fabian Review focuses on the turbulent political landscape of Europe, featuring Caroline Gray, Matthias Dilling, Luke John Davies, Emma Fastesson Lindgren, and Judith Kirton-Darling. In conversation with Iggy Wood, Liam Byrne discusses inequality, populism, and sci-fi. Elsewhere, Paul Mason and Margaret Pinder discuss Labour's defence plans.

Latest from the Fabian Society

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Opinion

Off target

20 May 2025

PEYMANA ASSAD: A sporting boycott of Afghanistan would stifle a symbol of resistance to Taliban rule

Continue reading Foreign policy / Race
Opinion

Last bastion

14 May 2025

CAROLINE GRAY: The Spanish government faces very different challenges to Labour - but it may still have some things to teach Keir Starmer

Continue reading Elections / European Union
Opinion

Wrong turn

12 May 2025

MATTHIAS DILLING: Despite heavy losses in the 2025 snap election, a rightward shift on migration would be disastrous for the SPD

Continue reading Immigration / European Union
Opinion

Foundational problems

9 May 2025

DARREN PAFFEY MP: The cladding crisis has highlighted deeper issues with our approach to housing and property

Continue reading
Interview

Absolutely positive

7 May 2025

Liam Byrne is a man on a mission – or several. He talks to IGGY WOOD about inequality, populism, and sci-fi – and convinces him that it’s all going to be alright

Continue reading Populism / Inequality
Opinion

Long overdue

6 May 2025

NAUSHABAH KHAN MP: A holistic approach is needed to fix the private rented sector

Continue reading Housing

Our publications

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When I'm 64

A strategy to tackle poverty before state pension age

Fabian Society senior researcher Sasjkia Otto looks at the roots of pre-retirement poverty and presents a strategy to address it.

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Caring for Carers

Policy options for carers' employment and financial protections

Fabian Society researcher Eloise Sacares and general secretary Andrew Harrop present a series of policy options for the employment and financial protections of unpaid carers.

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Climbing the Mountain

Labour's key battlegrounds at the next election

This report identifies 150 non-Labour seats on the new boundaries which will likely make up a very high proportion of the constituencies that Labour will target at the next election.

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Equal Footing

Why we cannot afford to ignore inequality

Anneliese Dodds MP explains how Labour's ambitious agenda to tackle inequality will benefit us all.

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Whatever the Weather

A progressive strategy for climate resilience and adaptation

Fabian Society researcher Eloise Sacares makes the case for climate adaptation, identifying three key areas of life which will be severely impacted by climate change and in which practical changes in government policy could make a significant differe...

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The Final Furlong

What do the public want from the next election?

In spite of Labour's extremely strong polling numbers over the past year, there has been continuing media speculation about a hung parliament. The Fabian Society undertook research during summer 2023 to understand voters’ preferred election outcomes...

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By the People, With the People

How the NHS can work with us to make us partners in our own health

In this pamphlet, Charlotte Augst and Paul Corrigan set out to identify the factors that have scuppered progress on health system reform, and refine the calls for change into two simple questions. First, how can the NHS work with people to keep them ...

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In Tandem

The case for coordinated economic policymaking

Michael Jacobs, Robert Calvert Jump, Jo Michell and Frank van Lerven scrutinise the lack of cooperation between the UK government and the Bank of England, and propose a new Economic Policy Coordinating Committee to help achieve the multiple objective...

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Working Nein to Five

What can the UK learn from Germany about work-life balance?

Fabian Society senior researcher Sasjkia Otto asks what we can learn from Germany about work-life balance.

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Equality and empowerment

A progressive proposal for fiscal devolution and economic development in England

Fabian Society research director Luke Raikes sets out to make a progressive case for devolving public spending, raising important questions about how public money can be used more effectively to deliver policy objectives.

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Plans for Power

Fabian ideas for transforming Britain

This pamphlet is a compilation of some of the most important ideas developed and championed by the Fabian Society in recent years. It is a ‘mixtape’ of the best proposals, from early years to pensions and from the future of work to public service ref...

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A good life in all regions

Uniting our country to end poverty

The report of the Fabian Society's Commission on Regional Poverty and Inequality concludes that the UK has two major regional economy challenges – ‘low growth’ outside the south east, where places lack good jobs; and ‘overheating’ in the capital, whe...

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Lawful and fair

Building a better migration system

In this pamphlet, Will Somerville and Sarah Mulley set out robust proposals to reform our migration system. They argue that it must be based on sound principles: it must be fair, it must be grounded in democratic consent, and it must respect people’s...

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Support guaranteed

The roadmap to a National Care Service

Plans for a National Care Service for England were first presented 13 years ago in the dying days of the last Labour government. Since then no detailed work has taken place to flesh out what the service might look like or how it should be implemented...

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Britain Reconnected

A foreign policy for security and prosperity at home

In this publication, David Lammy MP identifies the major geopolitical trends that will shape the UK's place in the world, and sets out the next Labour government’s approach to foreign policy

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