The growth of working poverty –particularly since the 2008-9 financial crisis – is one element of a bigger story around pressure on standards of living driven both by low pay and rising costs of essential goods, particularly housing.

This paper suggests that a strategy to reduce poverty which activates institutional investors, including pension funds, foundations and asset management firms, around the problem of low-paid, precarious and exploitative employment in the UK’s private sector could have a meaningful impact on UK poverty.