The Big Issue

The Big Issue is one of Britain’s leading news and cultural magazines. Every week’s edition is packed full of original takes on the biggest issues of the day as well as interviews with the most significant figures in politics and entertainment. The Big Issue was founded 1991 to give people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to earn their own income. We continue to support hundreds of vendors across the UK and all proceeds from sales go to help anyone wanting to lift themselves out of poverty.

Mood swings

THE DISPATCH • News, views & miscellany

Simeon McAnoy was killed by nitazenes. Could his life have been saved? • In the second part of our investigation into the devastating effects of the UK’s synthetic opioid crisis, we spoke to a grieving mother who believes her son’s tragic death was avoidable

EDITOR’S LETTER • Fix poverty, build hope

THE BIG ISSUE

The disability pay gap marks a decade of lost potential for disabled people

BIRD’S WORDS • People have the power – we just need to know what to do with it

LETTERS

Blitz is the war film that says everything about British national identity as lived today • Blitz reclaims a familiar story through fresh eyes and by shattering cliches. Director Sir Steve McQueen and star Saoirse Ronan tell Big Issue how they did it

PAULINE BLACK • She studied biochemistry and worked for the NHS, but after touring with The Specials it was time to quit the day job

TAG

Still waters run deep

In uncovering a family secret, I’ve liberated my grandmother’s sorrowful story

Even Russian mercenaries have a sensitive side

A WEIGHT HUNG TO THIS ROLE THAT I COULDN’T RUN AWAY FROM

SAM DELANEY IS AT HOME

What Jilly Cooper taught me about sex

A festival that goes to the heart of the Big Easy

The darkness behind Mexico’s colourful parade

Puzzles

MY PITCH • Saint Davids Road opposite Lloyds Bank, Cwmbran Monday-Sunday, 6am-2pm and afternoons

The BIG rebuild

These Londoners built their own homes to beat sky-high house prices • Rural Urban Synthesis Society’s self-build project is the biggest of its kind in London and is the culmination of a 15-year dream that shows an alternative vision of home ownership

Community-led housing is not just for city dwellers

For-profit social housing and its uneasy part in delivering homes for Britain

We need to talk about inheritocracy • The Bank of Mum and Dad has too much influence in our housing market, says Eliza Filby. That has to change

Empty buildings are a resource waiting to be tapped • Henrietta Blackmore, national director at Habitat for Humanity GB, a global charity dedicated to building and improving homes for those in need, discusses why converting empty spaces is essential to address the housing crisis

Counting the cost of building a home

A great leap forward to plug the gaps in Britain’s draughty homes • Efforts to fix the UK’s old, draughty homes are not going fast enough. In Bristol, the council has turned to the private sector to turbocharge decarbonisation work – and it could be a breath of fresh air for the rest of the country

How Labour’s new Skills England initiative can save the construction industry • Labour’s new skills body aims to transform opportunities and drive growth. And nowhere could that make more of a difference than in fixing the housing crisis

A village under Manchester railway arches goes full steam ahead on tackling homelessness

Housing First’s uncertain future