Why Britain is so much poorer than you think

Poverty in Britain is bad and it’s getting worse. And yet, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has set out plans to tax the British public more than ever before.

Lewis travels back to Birmingham to visit a community centre which provides food and warmth for the local community, and he’s joined back in News Agents HQ by Torsten Bell, of the Resolution Foundation, and Duncan Robinson from The Economist to unpick the structural reasons of how it can be that the government is taxing more than ever before, yet public services are as bad as they are right now. This all comes with poverty becoming increasingly normalised in British society.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Day Editor: Ellie Clifford

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

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The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – three of the UK’s top journalists – host an award-winning daily news podcast: The News Agents.

They’re not just here to tell you what's happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed.

Episodes are available every weekday afternoon. You can listen to The News Agents on Alexa, just say "Alexa ask Global Player to play The News Agents"

The News Agents is a Global Player Original podcast.

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You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/

• No. of episodes: 1,223
• Latest episode: 2026-09-22
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