{"id":707262,"date":"2026-01-19T22:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/707262\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:12:18","slug":"trial-to-give-free-money-to-bristolians-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/707262\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial to give free money to Bristolians approved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol city councillors voted for a Universal Basic Income trial\"Woman<\/p>\n

Cllr Ani Stafford moving the Universal Basic Income motion at Bristol City Council full council on Tuesday, January 13(Image: Bristol City Council\/YouTube)<\/p>\n

A trial giving free money to Bristolians has been backed by city councillors.<\/p>\n

The Green-led local authority voted to lobby the government for a pilot project to test a universal basic income<\/a> (UBI) in the city.<\/p>\n

The cash would initially go to the creative sector and care leavers.<\/p>\n

The Lib Dems<\/a> and Conservatives<\/a> voted against the idea and Labour<\/a> abstained, but Cllr Ani Stafford\u2019s (Green, Central) motion to a meeting of full council on Tuesday, January 13, was approved by 32-14 votes.<\/p>\n

Cllr Stafford said: \u201cOur benefits system is not the safety net it was meant to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is means\u2011tested at every turn, creating continuous barriers to access and pushing too many people into hardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Green Party adopted UBI in 1973, not as a utopia but as a practical mechanism to meet the challenges of our time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat once sounded radical is now being recognised as a serious, evidence\u2011based solution in a world still feeling the aftershocks of the pandemic, the disruption of AI, and growing global instability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fair, simple, and non\u2011discriminatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t penalise people based on employment status, caring responsibilities, age, or disability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt establishes an income floor, a foundation every person can rely on, reducing inequality, supporting those in precarious work, strengthening communities, and helping us rethink our relationship with growth and the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Guy Poultney (Green, Cotham) said: \u201cYes, it would benefit the rich as well, it\u2019s a universal system \u2013 so is our education system, so is our waste collection system, so is our water system, so is the state pension, and so is the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Sheffield, Liverpool and Preston we\u2019ve seen this supported by Labour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Leeds, thanks to Liberal Democrats<\/a>, we\u2019ve seen it go through, and also in Hull thanks to Lib Dems with the support of the Conservative Party<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Tom Blenkinsop (Labour, Avonmouth<\/a> & Lawrence Weston) said: \u201cI don\u2019t think the motion will get very far, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s much more than an academic talking shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motion has little detail and I have concerns about how we run this as a social science experiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is staggeringly little detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ve thought through the complexity of this and the difficulty you\u2019ll face, and instead you\u2019re sending yet another letter to central government to ask them to do all the work of organising this and then so they can be criticised because we haven\u2019t done it perfectly, even though I\u2019m not sure you yourself know what you want your design to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Caroline Gooch (Lib Dem, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) said: \u201cFor those paying tax, a UBI wouldn\u2019t change their circumstances as they would pay extra tax to make up for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome well-off people who don\u2019t pay tax, such as those with inherited wealth, would benefit because they wouldn\u2019t have it taken away from them in tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you receive universal credit, that ends up being tapered according to the UBI receipt.<\/p>\n

\u201cUBI doens\u2019t adequatey focus on the goal of ending deep poverty and targetging enough financial support to ensure that all can afford the essentials to live in dignity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Liberal Democrats voted to switch to supporting Guaranteed Basic Income.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sees bigger increases in benefits for those on lower incomes for the same taxpayer cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr John Goulandris (Conservative, Stoke Bishop) said other countries, including Finland, Canada and the US, all abandoned trials of UBI as failures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol city councillors voted for a Universal Basic Income trial Cllr Ani Stafford moving the Universal Basic Income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[15066,381,3893,748,527,14486,393,4884,14144,20078,528,11518,285,16,15,11386],"class_list":["post-707262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-avonmouth","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-britain","tag-conservative-party","tag-cotham","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-green-party","tag-henleaze","tag-labour-party","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-westbury-on-trym"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115924064317404231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}