This spring we are launching  a major new three-year programme to tackle the ‘Poverty Premium’: the extra costs that people on low incomes currently pay for ‘food, fuel and finance’.

To raise funds for the programme, we will be conducting a telephone appeal which will commence in late February and continue for five weeks (with option for one additional week depending on progress).

We are currently recruiting callers to join our campaign team: it’s a chance to help to make a difference to others, and to bring in a little extra income at the same time.

Applications close on Thursday 14 February 2011 at 9am.
Interviews will take place on Friday 15 February.

Click here to download an application pack.
Or call 0161 236 9321 to request a printed copy.

The 14 signatories were also keen to point out that tax dodging, in its various forms, is an injustice that keeps some people poor while others get richer. The price is not just paid here in the UK. Christian Aid estimates that tax dodging by some unscrupulous multinational companies costs developing countries at least $160 billion a year, a figure one and a half times the global aid budget.

Chair of WYEC, Bishop of Pontefract Tony Robinson, said "Tax avoidance denies help to the poorest and most vulnerable people both here in the UK and in developing countries. This is morally unacceptable. As representatives of the churches of West Yorkshire we call on our politicians to take action to ensure multinational corporations pay their rightful share of tax in the countries they operate."

The letter asks the MPs and MEPs representing West Yorkshire to:

• ensure the UK takes a lead in promoting transparency in the affairs of tax havens and the companies using them, particularly whilst it chairs the G8 summit in June and also through the EU;
• ensure tax avoidance loopholes are closed for both companies and individuals;
• push for measures that would require companies to report on the profits they make and taxes they pay in every country in which they operate;
• push for measures that would require tax havens to automatically share information about the money flowing through them with other countries;
• ensure greater resources and energy are deployed to detect and prosecute those engaged in illegal tax evasion.

The letter comes following support from church leaders for Christian Aid and Church Action on Poverty’s joint campaigning for tax justice.

Promoting tax justice is part of the recently launched IF campaign (see www.christianaid.org.uk/if) and of Church Action on Poverty's campaign to Close the Gap between rich and poor (see www.church-poverty.org.uk/closethegap).

The signatories on the letter are:

• Rt Revd Tony Robinson, Bishop of Pontefract and Chair of WYEC
• Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Bradford
• Revd Graham Ensor, Regional Minister, Yorkshire Baptist Association
• Revd Kenneth Evans, Chairman, Yorkshire District, Moravian Church
• Pastor Gloria Hanley, Representative West Yorkshire African Caribbean Council of Churches
• Lt Col Bill Heeley, Divisional Commander, Salvation Army
• Rt Revd Walter Jagucki, Bishop Emeritus, Lutheran Church of Great Britain
• Rt Revd John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds
• Eva Pinthus, Representative, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
• Rt Revd Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield
• Revd Dr Liz Smith, Chair Leeds Methodist District
• Revd Dr Roger Walton, Chair West Yorkshire Methodist District
• Revd Kevin Watson, Moderator, Yorkshire Synod, United Reformed Church
• Mgr John Wilson, Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Leeds

‘I don’t feel like a person any more’

Paul used to be a truck driver, travelling all over Europe, but he now suffers from various illnesses which mean he can’t walk more than 30  yards. He receives Disability Living Allowance and has a car, without which he would be house-bound. Paul currently lives in a two-bedroom property; his children sometimes stay with him and help him around the house and with his personal needs. He is devastated that, due to the imminent Housing Reform Act, he will have to move to a one-bedroom property, and there will no longer be space for his children to stay over.

Paul says he feels very vulnerable and frightened, which makes his illnesses worse. It is very unlikely that there will be a one-bedroom property available in the same area, so Paul will have to move away from his community.

He is very concerned that the housing benefit reform is destroying communities, and will cause individuals to become isolated and lose their self-worth. Paul is terrified of being evicted, and feels that people like him are ‘such easy targets’.

Paul is currently part of a community association which has recently won a bid to take over and run the local community centre. He thinks running events for themselves will increase people’s self-esteem. He talks about how neighbours help and support each other, and that the community centre builds relationships and increases self-worth. However, the housing reform means that Paul will most probably have to leave the area and will no longer be able to run the community centre.

The Greater Manchester Poverty Commission has spent the past nine months listening to the personal stories of testifiers at 10 Poverty Hearings across Greater Manchester, facilitated by a team of organisations including Church Action on Poverty, Greater Manchester Council for Voluntary Organisations and Manchester Diocese.

I nearly froze to death last winter. My house was that cold I literally had icicles on the thingy. I begged the gas board to come and put some electric on, this was at Christmas, and they wouldn’t.

The Commission’s final report is a hard hitting mixture of testimonies and hard facts.  Its conclusions:

Poverty is having a lack of choice: not being able to choose what you eat, where you live, what you buy, or where you go. A lack of options leads to frustration or boredom.

Poverty is all-encompassing. Poverty is evidently more than the suffering caused through the lack of basic requirements, such as food, clothing and housing; it is also the social isolation and feelings of shame which come as a result. Boredom, misery, fear, lack of choice, insecurity, lack of control, and lack of dignity can culminate in a downward spiral which is difficult to reverse.

Poverty is about boredom. It is a groundhog day of poverty, the monotony of routine without variety of options.

Poverty is characterised by insecurity and a lack of control. People living in poverty do not have the resources to cope with an unexpected event (e.g. meeting the demands of a bill or unexpected expense, a change in benefits or ill health).

People talked of their vulnerability. Many on benefits are fearful that these will change; this is particularly prevalent at the moment due to the changes to the welfare reform agenda and their potential impacts upon the lives of residents.

Poverty is characterised by fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Feelings of fear and uncertainty can lead to depression and mental ill health, factors that were frequently mentioned by those living in poverty. Poor mental health or low self-esteem can aggravate poverty as people lose their social networks and the ability to seek help, find work or have an active lifestyle. A lack of dignity, self-worth and feeling stigmatised were common to all the testimonies given by people living in poverty.

The Commission has issued a challenge to public, private and voluntary organisations across Greater Manchester:  It is up to you to take action together to make a difference – to stop matters getting worse – and to lift your game, to prevent the very real hardship that Paul and thousands like him, turning into despair over the months and years ahead.

Click here to download the Greater Manchester Poverty Commission's report

Click here to see an interview with the chair of the Commission, Bishop Nigel McCulloch

Barbed wire, protected doors and shutters make it almost impossible to figure out how to get into Salford’s Windsor Drop-in Centre.

Yet despite the intimidating exterior, once inside, the centre offers a cafe, showers, medical facilities and a hugely welcoming atmosphere.

For local ex-offenders – many of whom end up leaving prison homeless, with only £46 in their pockets – the centre is a lifeline.

It is now home to the self-titled 'Positive Changes' group, made up of seven men, all of whom have been in prison.

Over the past six weeks, the group have been on a 12-week ‘School of Participation’ course, run by Church Action on Poverty to help them re-enter work and education.

Tony Leather, 37, has spent four and half years in prison for offences including assault, robberies, and car theft.  He says it is unlike any other school he has been to.

“At school you get told what you’re doing, and when you’re doing it; here you get asked what you want to do and how you want to do it.  And because you choose, you actually put more effort into it.
“It’s our knowledge; the knowledge of people who have been in the situation we’ve been in.”

Action learning

The course was created by Weaste activist Sarah Whitehead – herself a School of Participation graduate – after she realised that the 2011 riots were, in part, an expression of voicelessness.

“They haven’t got someone talking down to them who they don’t relate to,” she says. “They’ve got the freedom to learn what they want to learn. And I think that’s why they keep coming back. Because it’s what they want to do.”

Joyce Kay, Community Pride Link Worker, explains that giving participants control over their learning – within a rigid framework for discussion – allows them to have ownership of the process. The group eventually plan to create a handbook for prison leavers.

“By sharing their issues and experiences, they actually learn from each other,” Kay adds. “They can see that there is an action coming out of this, so they feel like it is relevant.”

Church Action on Poverty run a number of schools in Salford with deaf and blind people and young mothers, as well as the Salford Apprentice course for aspiring activists, in conjunction with Salford University. Each school costs between £10,000 and £12,000, and funding comes from the Lloyds TSB Foundation and the National Lottery.

Based on the teachings of Brazilian thinker Paulo Freire, the programme rethinks adult education as a process which empowers people to reflect on their society and take the initiative to create direct change – whether by forming businesses, creating social enterprises, or through political action.

“When people are isolated individuals, they can believe that they are unemployed because they are failures,” explains John Lockhart, Director of the Freire Institute at the University of Central Lancashire.

“But once you see unemployment in a more systematic way, as a product of how the economy and society works, it appears that there is a collective action that you can take.”

Church Action on Poverty encouraged users of Facebook to switch off the social networking site for the day in protest against their failure to pay a fair amount of UK tax. The aim was to raise awareness of the tax dodged by big companies like Facebook, and build public support for government action to tackle tax havens.

The campaign was very successful,reaching over 50,000 people over the course of the week, and sparking a lively debate on Church Action on Poverty's own Facebook page. Other campaigners added their voices to the campaign from the thinktank Ekklesia, the New Internationalist magazine and the blog Resistance & Renewal.

Monday morning saw some very promising news about Fair Taxes. Thanks to popular campaigns like ours raising the issue, Starbucks (another major tax dodger) have now agreed to review their tax policy, and Chancellor George Osborne is to review tax relief on pensions so that the wealthy make a fairer contribution.

But this is just the start. We don't want companies to pick and choose whether they pay their tax. We need concrete government action to tackle the secretive tax havens which allow such massive tax avoidance to happen in the first place. So we will continue campaigning for Fair Taxes.

Please click on the links below to help us keep up the pressure. Together, we can make a difference!

Click here to read the news about the rate cap.

Debt on our Doorstep, a national network for fair finance, held a Debt Lobby and Action day at Parliament on Tuesday 3 December 2002 to protest against extortionate lending. Hundreds of people carrying inflatable sharks lobbied MPs to make their point clear. The event was billed as “an attack on legal ‘loan sharking’ by finance companies who target the poorest in our society. Over 3 million people, mostly on low income, are currently reliant on credit offered by doorstep lenders at interest rates in excess of 160% APR.”

My words at the launch of the event were as follows:

If the government is really serious about tackling poverty and the blight of debt, then it must act now to tackle the extortionate interest rates that loan companies are allowed to charge, and by making available low-cost finance to those most in need. Without action on high-cost credit, pledges to eradicate poverty are nothing more than empty promises.

The lobby was followed up by a report from Richard Murphy, arguing the case for an interest rate ceiling, based on a forensic analysis of the business model of Provident Financial, and concluding there was prima facie evidence of market failure in the sector.

In 2004, Radio 4′s Moneybox programme joined the campaign, with Paul Lewis presenting a half-hour expose of extortionate lending. In spite of a growing clamour in parliament and the media, the Department for Trade and Industry remained resolutely opposed to caps.

In 2005, as a result of lobbying by Debt on our Doorstep and the National Consumer Council, the  Competition Commission launched an Inquiry into the Home Credit sector, to which we submitted both written and verbal evidence in person. The Inquiry concluded that there was indeed market failure, at a cost to customers in excess of £500 million over the period 2000-04.

In 2006, the Competition Commission concluded that it was ‘minded to consider a price cap on home credit loans’ if it appeared likely that its other remedies were not proving effective.

Sadly, in spite of mounting evidence of the damaging impact of extortionate lending on millions of low income households, successive Governments – under intensive lobbying from powerful business interests – have set themselves against capping interest rates – until yesterday.

Ten years on, victory is sweet indeed.

Credit for this victory rests with many who have supported and given the campaign fresh impetus along the way, not least Stella Creasy MP, who has championed the cause since being elected to Parliament in 2010. But most of all to Damon Gibbons, Director of the Centre for Responsible Credit who co-founded Debt on our Doorstep 13 years ago. Damon has kept alight the flame through thick and thin, refusing to bow to the pressures of industry lobbyists, naysayers in the voluntary sector and the depressing rebuttals of a succession of Government ministers.

• This post first appeared on Niall Cooper's blog
• Click here to read more about our campaign to Close the gap through Fair Prices

The group held a very successful public collection for the appeal at a local supermarket, and are now exploring whether they can extend the appeal to Belfast next year.

Visit Church Action on Poverty Northern Ireland's website to find out more and support their appeal.

The event was a great success, and you can now read Revd Dr Giles Fraser's sermon online.

We would like to thank all the supporters who sponsored the cake - we depend on donations like these to continue working for hope and transformation in some of the UK's poorest communities.

If you didn't sponsor the cake, it's not too late to make your own birthday gift to support Church Action on Poverty's vital work:

• You can still click here to sponsor the cake - it was very big, and plenty of slices and candles were not allocated to donors!
• Click here to find out how you can organise a celebration service to Kindle a Flame in your own church.

"Those with the spirit of Jeremiah, who absolutely despise and abhor the injustice and ill treatment of the most vulnerable people in our nation, need to stand up for those who have no voice and are too weak to defend themselves. We are in a very huge battle, we must stand together undivided, and defend the poor and needy. Jesus said that this evil thing shall not go out except by prayer and fasting. He also said that where two or three are gathered together, he is there with us. Those who will stand and pray are together all together in spirit. I believe that if as many as possible will STAND with me on a Friday night, something will give. I am certain!"

The vigils take place every two months, and the next one is on 30 November. You can join in simply by agreeing to pray in your own home. You would be asked to abstain from food and drink between 6pm and 6am, and spend one three-hour 'watch' during the night in prayer and reflection.

• If you want to join in, just email Susanna to let her know.
• Susanna posts prayer points and updates for the vigils on the Facebook page for our 'Close the Gap' prayer community.

If we sit here very quietly, we might just be able to hear another form of worship going on around us. Around us, as we sit in stillness here, tens of thousands of people are worshipping in these big temples, the shopping centres. I spent two hours this afternoon in the shopping centres of Manchester. It was hell. Surrounded by people buying things they don’t want, for people they don’t like, from places they don’t really want to go. Stuff they don’t need, stuff that won’t last. But why are they buying it?

The other day I was having an afternoon at home, playing football with my boy in the garden. It was an OK day, it wasn’t the best day I’ve ever had, it wasn’t the worst day I’ve ever had. I came in and sat down on the sofa and I turned on the telly, and there were the adverts. And they suddenly made me really angry, because I realised the adverts were telling me: “You know this life that you’ve got now? You, Giles Fraser – this life you’ve got now? It’s not that good! Because you could have this life. You could be thinner, or richer. You could have a better car, you could have all these fantastic things.” And it starts by saying, “Your life now is rubbish, because you haven’t got all this stuff.”  It works by making us feel dissatisfied, making us feel fat, or poor, that we haven’t got a great car, or the latest this or that. And then we’ve got to go out there and worship in the shopping centres.

These chains are ours too, and we don’t like taking them off because it means taking off all this stuff too – our clothes, our fancy cars. If we take all that off, it’s just us, God, the people we love: our vulnerability. And it’s tough, because they make us greedy. They make us want to keep stuff for ourselves. It’s all about me; that’s what fear does. Fear is what makes us greedy. The most important thing Christianity requires of us, I believe, is to be courageous. Give things up. Be dependent upon God, and then you are so strong that you can change the world. And the world needs changing.

I’ve just taken over a job in the East End of London, in Tower Hamlets, with the Fairness Commission. I want to tell you two things about my area of the East End, which I love very much. One is that it has the highest child poverty in the country: 50% of children in Tower Hamlets are classed as being poor, one of the poorest areas in Europe, the highest rate of child poverty in the whole country. The second thing is that the average income in Tower Hamlets is £58,000. Why? Because it includes Canary Wharf. Because it includes those great glass towers, this little borough has the income of Monaco or Malta. And yet, hundreds of yards away from those towers, there are small bedrooms with six or eight kids sharing, who can’t do their homework, living in the most awful conditions. And next year, when the benefit caps get put in, thousands of people in Tower Hamlets will be made homeless. Wealth does not ‘trickle down’; wealth is sucked upwards into those great glass towers.

This is our society. This is the society that we must, as Christians, transform. But we will not transform it by being generous. Not with just another quid out of our pocket. We will transform it by being Christians, by being unafraid, and by saying that we know the love of God will transform the world. We must cry against injustice and light candles against the darkness. And we will do that, and we will be so much more powerful, if we have broken our own chains too.

In the story of the burning bush, the people of Israel are released, they go into the desert looking for the promised land, and God teaches them a lesson in economics. Bread comes down from heaven because of grace. You collect bread for your need. But if people take too much, it turns to worms by the morning; it’s useless. The economic message is that there is such a thing as having too much.

We live in a society where some have too much, and some have nothing at all.  It’s our job to break chains, to take light into the darkness, but first of all, we must break our own chains too.

Then on 21 November, an overwhelming vote of the Church of England's General Synod backed the Living Wage in a debate led by Church Action on Poverty member, John Freeman. The motion was carried with no votes against, after an hour-long debate which included contributions from the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. It was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury elect, Justin Welby, who last week reiterated his support for the Living Wage and said it is something “we should be shouting about”.

Alan Thornton, Church Action on Poverty’s Campaigns Officer, said: “Virtually every Christian denomination in the land is now committed to the principle of the Living Wage. Since 2002 we have been working with churches to take a clear stand against poverty by adopting the Living Wage. Our work is almost done. It is a great encouragement to the Living Wage movement that two large institutions like the Catholic Church and Church of England have backed the Living Wage within the past week.”

Politicians as diverse as Boris Johnson, Ed Miliband and Alex Salmond have all endorsed the Living Wage in the last year. As well as 35 councils, 12 universities, and four hospitals in the public sector, a range of private sector companies are already accredited Living Wage employers: Barclays, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lloyds of London, KPMG and Lush.

Read our Living Wage briefing here

The Reverend Phil Borkett spoke outside the church to set the scene as we walked though Highfield. He reminded us of the rich diversity of Sharrow and the need to remember peopel seeking sanctuary in our city.

From here, we walked to the Roundabout hostel for homeless young people. Amy Casbolt provided us with a rich description of the hostel’s work. Amy described the opportunities which the hostel opens up for the young people, and Roundabout’s hopes and plans for renovation and building developments in a context of national  financial stringency. Lively questions and answers were followed by prayer for the work, a pattern that was to be followed at each stage on our pilgrim way.

Our journey then took us past the St Wilfrid’s Centre on Queens Road where, braving the noise of the road traffic, we stopped to pray for the Centre’s work, with its focus on supporting and caring for people who experience social exclusion, living with a wide range of vulnerabilities.

Geographically, our walk had reached the bottom!  Being Sheffield, the only way was up … and up and up … as the route began to climb!   Our walk took us within sight of the South Yorkshire Energy House, where Father Shaun Smith outlined this environmental project and led us in prayers for the many Sheffielders who experience fuel poverty. Nearby we stopped again as the Reverend June Pettit of Underbank Chapel led us in prayer for the work of the Heeley City Farm.

Walking now to join Gleadless Road, we welcomed the kind hospitality of the Church of the Nazarene which is close to the heavily-used Heeley Advice Centre. Here we met Lillian Haywood, whose long engagement with Gleadless local life provided us with an authoritative picture of the needs of the district, with its excellent volunteers and the few paid advice workers who seek to serve the immense needs of the community. Particularly arresting, and disturbing, were the stories of real families and their struggle with low incomes, ill health and complex benefit regulations. These stories and the statistics placed before us were deeply disturbing. We could only pray and resolve again to work for justice and the kingdom of God.

Back on the road, now walking in fine sun, we made our way upwards and towards Gleadless Valley, to the landmark Holy Cross Church at Spotswood Mount, where we were kindly received. Holy Cross commands a view right across the city to the prosperous side of Sheffield. In its submission to Sheffield City Council’s Fairness Commission earlier this year, Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield called for action to reduce the inequalities between the ‘Two Cities’ of Sheffield. On this day and in this place at Gleadless Valley, this division in our city was plain to see.

The striking landscape of Gleadless Valley is mellowed by woodlands, notably the Rollestone Wood, which dates back to the 15^th century. On this day the combination of streams, sun and trees gave cause for thanks and praise for the beauty of the world and the endless, wonderful surprises of our city!

And so, the final climb!  Our destination was Gleadless Valley Methodist Church. Here we met Reverend Helen Lawson of Gleadless Valley Food Bank and Nick Waterfield of Parson Cross Foodbank. As we gave particular thanks for our own food at the end of our pilgrimage, ‘food poverty’ was underlined as a key theme of the day as we were reminded of the rise in the ‘absolute poverty’, and indeed hunger, found increasingly in Britain’s ‘poor places’. Helen and Nick shared their experiences with us, and we were challenged to bring our new knowledge into our churches and into the wider debate in the public realm.

As in previous pilgrimages, we have been taken into parts of our city that we may rarely visit and we have been challenged by what we have seen and heard on our journey. May we follow in Christ’s way, in love and service.

Sarah Baker, Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield

We welcome the reflections of our companion pilgrims.  Please send your comments to sarah.baker3@virgin.net

This new programme will include the training of more congregations to address economic hardship in their areas and tackle negative public perceptions of people in poverty.

Radio 4's Sunday programme were at the conference - you can listen to their report below, featuring interviews with a keynotes speaker and some of the participants in our grassroots programmes.

“We never wanted this to be a backward-looking celebration,” said Church Action on Poverty's National Coordinator Niall Cooper.
“The challenge of tackling poverty is as great now as it was 30 years ago. That is why we need to be a forward looking organisation and more ambitious for the future.”

Giles Fraser made headlines last year when he resigned from St Paul’s Cathedral after officials initially opposed Occupy London Stock Exchange protesters camped outside the building.

Giving a sermon to the conference, he urged the church to speak up about economic injustice and tackle consumerism.

“We will not transform [society] by being more generous – just another quid out the pocket – but by being Christians,” he said.
“We know the love of God is what will transform the world.”

Christian Aid director Loretta Minghella gave the keynote address.
She said: “We recognise that although the symptoms of poverty vary across the world, the root causes of poverty are the same. It is a great privilege for us to be here and to work together to develop our vision for a world without poverty.”

The conference, attended by over 100 supporters and partners from across the country, included testimonies from Church Action on Poverty's community programmes.

Thrive Teesside explained how their anti-debt campaign has persuaded the multi-million pound high-cost credit sector to improve its practices, helping 325,000 customers nationally.

Member Kath Carter said: “Thrive gave us the tools and we did the talking. All we are asking is that local communities stand up and say, this is wrong; we can put it right.”

Through our Close the Gap campaign, Church Action on Poverty has also been demanding that employers introduce the Living Wage of £7.45. The General Synod of the Church of England is set to discuss the issue later this month.

Kate Plant, from the Sheffield Church Action on Poverty group, explained how just £3,600 was all it took to enable her diocese to introduce a living wage. She said: “Church Action on Poverty has really kept up the challenge. They have given us the confidence to take it forward. We hope that now other local businesses and employers will take up the campaign.”

Although comparatively small – with a permanent staff of just 15 and an annual turnover of  £800,000 – Church Action on Poverty has had an impact on the lives of more than a half a million people across the UK since it was established in 1982.

Alison Jackson, member of the Methodist Church's strategy and resources committee, said: “I think that the important thing about Church Action on Poverty is that they empower local people who are living in poverty to change their own situations.”

The conference also saw the launch of Powered by People UK, a new community organising network.

Click here to read Christian Today's report on the conference.

Dear Prime Minister,

Today Christian Aid and Church Action on Poverty are delivering thousands of messages from our supporters across the UK, encouraging you to ensure that strong action is taken next year to enhance tax transparency and curb tax dodging, as it affects poor people both in the UK and in developing countries.

Our supporters are not alone calling for stronger action to enhance tax transparency. In a recent UK ComRes poll commissioned by Christian Aid, 56% of adults polled believed that tax avoidance was morally wrong and 75% think that you, as Prime Minister, need to demand international action to tackle legal loopholes that allow tax avoidance.

The OECD estimates that developing countries lose to tax dodging three times the global aid budget every year. In the UK alone, HMRC has calculated that the cost to the exchequer is a minimum of £35 billion a year. In difficult economic times, it is more important than ever to close loopholes and enhance transparency, to ensure revenue lost from tax dodging can be invested to improve people’s lives.

Secrecy has a corrosive effect on societies across the globe, making it difficult for citizens to hold their governments to account, which is an essential building block to prosperous societies. Secrecy in the global tax system is today facilitating tax dodging and fuelling corruption.

Next year, as you hold the G8 Presidency, you have the power to make fundamental changes to the global tax system, to enhance transparency and to stop tax dodging from depriving developing countries of valuable resources to invest in their own development. As you announced that you will be convening a Hunger Summit next year, we encourage you to put the issue of tax at the centre of this agenda. Poor countries can stand up on their own two feet and solve hunger and malnutrition by themselves, and in the long term not rely on aid.

Yours sincerely,

Loretta Minghella, Director of Christian Aid 
Niall Cooper, Director of Church Action on Poverty