The Big Issue is a United Kingdom–based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. The Big Issue is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individuals at risk of homelessness, the opportunity to earn a legitimate income, thereby helping them to reintegrate into mainstream society. It is the world's most widely circulated street newspaper.
Dame Anita Lucia Roddick DBE (23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, The Body Shop International Limited, a cosmetics company producing and retailing natural beauty products which shaped ethical consumerism. The company was one of the first to prohibit the use of products being tested on animals in some of its products and one of the first to promote fair trade with developing countries.
Roddick was involved in activism and campaigning for environmental and social issues, including involvement with Greenpeace and The Big Issue. In 1990, Roddick founded Children on the Edge, a charitable organisation which helps disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. She believed that business should offer a form of moral leadership, being a more powerful force in society than religion or government.
A cost-of-living crisis is a socioeconomic situation or period of high inflation where nominal wages have stagnated while there is a sharp increase in the cost of basic goods, such as food, housing, and energy. As a result, living standards are squeezed to the point that people cannot afford the standard of living that they were previously accustomed to. Public health is threatened. The population becomes 'poorer' than it used to be in real terms. This is in contrast to a situation in which wages are rising to meet the rate of inflation and workers' standard of living remains unchanged.
During the 2020s, a cost-of-living crisis impacted many countries around the world amid global inflation. In February 2023, 3 out of 4 consumers globally were worried about the rising cost of everyday expenses. The Big Issue defines a cost of living crisis as "a situation in which the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and bills are rising faster than average household incomes". Change in average real incomes can be measured by real GNI per capita change.
John Anthony Bird, Baron Bird MBE (born 30 January 1946), is a British social entrepreneur and life peer. He is best known as the co-founder of The Big Issue, a magazine edited by professional journalists and sold by street vendors who are largely homeless or vulnerably housed. Bird sits as an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords.