Streets ahead

As pioneering street publication The Big Issue celebrates its 35th birthday, Carl Stanley invited co-founder Lord Bird to discuss its achievements and what the future holds.

Congratulations on an amazing achievement, as The Big Issue reaches its 35-year anniversary. It was built on the back of your passion to give homeless people not only a voice but the much-needed support required to get out of homelessness and start a new life – what were your initial hopes for the magazine, and what were the difficulties in trying to establish it on the streets back in 1991?

My aim was to bring the homeless person out of a system of begging and relying on the goodness of the public into a position of trading – selling a product that they were proud of, and wanted to sell.

When they started selling The Big Issue, their self-worth went up and they were more likely to interact with the public, which we can still see today is a great motivator for the vendor. I suppose my hopes were to give people with no option apart from illegal activity a chance to become an honest person, and feed their addictions without having to sell their bodies or rob people.

Looking back on those 35 years there are so many achievements and milestones. But what are your own personal favourite moments in the history of The Big Issue, and why?

My favourite moment was when I saw a Big Issue vendor I was about to de-badge for bad behaviour. Just before I approached him a police officer came up and gave him a coffee and a sandwich.

I followed the officer and asked him why he’d done it and told him who I was – he shook my hand and said that in the last two weeks the vendor had completely transformed himself from an anti-social pain in the arse into almost a model citizen. The policeman thanked me for starting The Big Issue – helping bad people become good people was wonderful to see.

The Big Issue continues to grow and adapt a changing society. One example is teaming up with the likes of Lenovo and giffgaff for projects where vendors are not only given smartphones but also IT training.

How does The Big Issue see its mission to fight homelessness in such a technically enhanced world?

Our current challenge is the reinvention of The Big Issue as a model. Back in 1991, for every two papers sold, one was taken. We didn’t mind that as we were still selling thousands of copies a week.

Now for every 20 sold, only one is taken. This is most likely a combination of people not wanting to read a paper or thinking it’s better for the vendor. We’re currently being killed by kindness and we must adapt. I’m personally very excited for the future, as challenge is a catalyst for change. 

There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll never stop working and supporting our vendors on the street, as they are the real heroes. I suppose the triumphs are the fact that hundreds of thousands of vendors have sold the magazine and we’ve produced millions of pounds of sales that has directly gone to them.

Coming into 2026, there have been so many societal changes that in turn have led to an unprecedented rise in homelessness across the country, something which you made quite clear earlier this year with your statement that ‘poverty is destroying us’, and highlighting child poverty as one of your main concerns.

With the recent amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill you tabled failing to gain government backing, where do you feel that leaves the situation regarding poverty and homelessness right now in the UK?

I believe the reason we have record high numbers of homeless people is because they were failed years before they became homeless. Apart from a few exceptions, I haven’t met a homeless person where their only problem is that they’re homeless. They’re normally battling drug and drink addictions, they come from incredibly horrific backgrounds. The only thing people in poverty inherit is poverty itself. 

We must tackle the root causes of poverty – we must support the children of poverty as they will pay the highest prices for our failure as a country. We have an ideology in government that’s based on keeping the poorest amongst us as comfortable as possible – not creating a route out. For many years I’ve been badgering on about a ministry of poverty prevention. I’ve now changed my ask – I’m calling for a commissioner of poverty prevention and cure that will report directly to the prime minister and create a space to talk and discuss what the future of prevention looks like.

What do you feel are the first changes that should be made to tackle this head on? More affordable homes, government funding and a change in policy, or is it much deeper than simply funding, as you’ve stated previously with what you term PECC – ‘prevention, emergency, coping and cure’?

With ‘emergency’ and ‘coping’ usually receiving the majority of government funding, do you find ‘prevention’ is still somewhat overlooked?

I find the cause of prevention to be completely overlooked in the name of making the homeless and poorest comfortable. Recently the government released its newest figures on homelessness, and we have the highest number of homeless people since 2010 – which was when the recording of the numbers started. 

They announced a £50m boost to homelessness – what they failed to mention to the public was that £35m went mostly on homeless shelters and prep for winter, and only £15m on prevention.

We’re in a constant cycle, because no one in government stops and looks around and asks the very simple question of what can we do to stop these people being homeless, and not just comfortable? We have to shift our funding away from emergency and firefighting and more into prevention and cure. I believe very strongly that if we do this we can finally change the narrative and create a path out of poverty.

If I could ask about the services that have been crucial in supporting homeless people out of poverty – housing, mental health, drug and family support, all of which The Big Issue has had the strongest of links to.

It seems to be the disconnection between services, and long waiting lists, that are still mentioned as the biggest problems. How do you feel they’re holding up right now?

We naturally need more affordable and social housing, and support for the drug rehabilitation centres. The problem lies in when the coping doesn’t then lead to cure, and we don’t spare a thought for prevention.

I’m sorry if I sound like a scratched record, but the fact of the matter is that we spend billions and billions on everything a homeless person would need or want – apart from a job, or education, or mental health. This is what will lift you out of the sticky stuff and onto a path of recovery from poverty.

Lastly, after coming so far with The Big Issue over the last 35 years and everything you’ve put into it, what would be some of your personal hopes and dreams when it comes to the future of the magazine, and why?

I feel very proud of the fact that over the last 35 years we’ve never stopped supporting the vendor on the street, regardless of what’s happened around the world.

We’ve always done our best to be there for them. When in 2020 we were told that all vendors had to be off the street, we were there to make sure they were housed and looked after. We gave them some money to make sure they had something when the government stopped housing them. 

As the world changes, so do we. This year is a year of transformation, a time to change to make sure we’re relevant and as supportive to the vendors as ever. At this moment we aren’t sure how things will change, but we will never turn our backs on anyone who wants to sell the paper. And we’ll never stop supporting our vendors.

Carl Stanley is a freelance writer