The Fabian Society, in association with the Webb Memorial Trust , is conducting a major research project to celebrate the centenary of a landmark contribution to social justice.

Beatrice Webb's 1909 Minority Report to the Poor Law Reform Commission first set out the vision, arguments and values of social justice that were to become the foundations of the modern welfare state. It challenged the dominant assumption that the poor were solely to blame for their own poverty, demonstrating that the causes of poverty are structural as well as individual, and argued that society has a collective responsibility to prevent poverty, not merely alleviate it. Culminating in 2009, Fighting poverty and inequality in an age of affluence will commemorate the centenary of the Minority Report by making a major contemporary contribution to the strategy for fighting poverty and inequality in today's Britain.

At a time when arguments about the causes of poverty, the principles of social justice and the responsibilities of the state are again central and contested issues in our political discourse, the project will explore how the Minority Report's key insights should be renewed and applied today. In doing so, the project will set out some core principles of contemporary citizenship that should underpin a new welfare settlement for the 21st century, as well as a series of practical proposals that will make a real difference to tackling poverty and inequality.

The project will seek to influence the ideas, policies and arguments of government and the major political parties through a series of publications, lectures and seminars. In the spirit of Beatrice Webb's central concern with winning public support for change, the project will also explore public attitudes towards measures to tackle poverty and inequality, to investigate what must be done to build a public consensus for making a socially just society a reality.

Tim Horton, Research Director, and James Gregory, Research Fellow, are leading the research project.

For more on the Webb Memorial Trust click here

There is a project advisory group which currently has the following members:

Rushanara Ali Young Foundation; Mike Brewer Institute for Fiscal Studies; Kate Green Child Poverty Action Group; Lisa Harker Daycare Trust/ IPPR; Peter Kellner YouGov; Peter Kenway New Policy Institute; Barry Knight (project chair) Webb Memorial Trust; Jane Lewis LSE; Seema Malhotra Price Waterhouse Coopers; Audrey Mullender Ruskin College, Oxford; Jane Roberts Parenting UK; Karen Rowlingson University of Birmingham; Shamit Saggar University of Sussex; Nicholas Timmins FT; Polly Toynbee Guardian; Stuart White Jesus College, Oxford.

The views expressed in project outputs are those of the authors alone.

Recent events

Policy Debate: In the Mix: Narrowing the gap between public and private housing

Centenary Conference, London School of Economics

Fabian Society and Policy Network Seminar: The Role of the Family in Tackling Poverty and Inequality: a Comparative European Perspective

Panel Debate: Solidarity Lost? Reviving the will to redistribute

Project Seminar: The Development of the British Welfare State

Project Seminar: Dysfunctional Societies: Why Inequality Matters

Panel Debate: A Return to Victorian Inequality? The Rise of the Super-Rich, Fabian AGM 2008

Fabian Society and Policy Network Seminar: Tackling Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Globalisation

Project Seminar: Housing and Citizenship

Peter Townsend Lecture: 1909-2009: Beatrice Webb and the Future of the Welfare State

Project Seminar: Social Justice, Conservatism and the State

Project Seminar: Social Justice, Liberal Democracy and the State

Panel Debate: Beatrice Webb and the Poor Law Minority Report - What lessons are there for today? Fabian Society AGM 2007

Ed Milliband lecture for project launch: Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence

2008 Party Conference events

TUC Conference: Divided Society? Communities and Citizenship

Liberal Democrat Party Conference: Climbing the Ladder: Can Social Mobility End Poverty?

Labour Party Conference: Child Poverty Challenge: Can Middle England Care About Equality?

Conservative Party Conference: Child Poverty Challenge: Is it the Warmth or the Wealth?

Project Publications

Project pamphlet: In the Mix

Podcast: Narrowing the housing gap - In the Mix

Project pamphlet: From the Workhouse to Welfare

Articles, Media and Reaction

James Gregory argues for a Housing Cost Credit

The Minority Report's Significance: Alan Johnson on health inequalities

Tim Horton on fair and effective welfare

Guardian Editorial in praise of Beatrice Webb

Sarah Wise and Pat Thane discuss the Minority Report on Radio 4

Letter to the guardian on the Minority Report

Sunder Katwala on 2009: a year of anniversaries

James Gregory writes on the influence of Beatrice Webb's Minority Report on the last 100 years of welfare policy

Sunder Katwala discusses the Fabian tradition in Comment is Free

James Gregory discusses the long-term impact of the policies raised in the Minority Report

Tim Horton on the dividing lines over welfare reform

Tim Horton discusses Beatrice Webb on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour