Unseen Cost of Living Campaign
At Unseen Tours, we know a crisis when we see one. Our guides all have experienced hard times, and we’ve been supporting them for more than a decade. And the current cost of living increase definitely looks like a crisis to us!
The cost of living has been increasing across the UK since early 2021, driven by an explosion in food prices and household energy bills. The Office for National Statistics reports that 87% of adults in Great Britain have been facing an increase in their cost of living since August 2022. Just like we did during the COVID pandemic, Unseen Tours is once again springing into action and adapting to these tough times.
Here’s our plan:
We are focusing on finding new ways to support our tour guides, as well as raising awareness of the issues that vulnerable people more in general are being confronted with..
To do this, we are:
- Creating new walking tours of London and onboarding new guides;
- Sharing our guides’ own stories and reflections about how the cost of living crisis is impacting their lives;
- Raising funds to maintain our core staff and to train new and current guides;
- Working with other organisations to raise awareness about how the cost of living crisis is impacting people with experience of homelessness.
Impact on homelessness
Inability to afford housing costs is one of the leading causes of homelessness in the UK. Low-income households spend a larger proportion than average on energy and food. For this reason, they are more sharply affected by price increases, and therefore more at risk of becoming homeless.
The national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations in England, Homeless Link, recently surveyed frontline homelessness services across the UK. They found that:
- 86% of the homelessness services across the country were seeing an increase in people experiencing homelessness due to the cost of living crisis;
- 91% said they were supporting people who were struggling to pay their energy bills.
According to statistics released by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), between July and September 2024, 4,780 individuals were recorded sleeping rough in London—the highest quarterly figure since records began. This marks an 18% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Notably, over 2,300 people were new to rough sleeping, representing a 12% rise from the previous year. Additionally, 681 individuals were identified as living consistently on the streets, a 42% increase year-on-year.
Impact on our guides
We grabbed a coffee with a couple of our guides – David and Pete to discuss the current cost-of-living crisis.
Talking with Pete and David about it is perhaps the first time the issue felt real, material, alive to some of us. David was telling us how his favourite brand of chocolate has gone up in price by 25% recently, so he really has to think twice about buying it. Pete explained how he has been going to the supermarket much more often, hunting for ‘reduced’ deals close to their expiry date.
Hearing from them really drove it home. When you’ve been without a place to call home, these worries about what you can afford are not an abstraction, a possibility, a ‘wait and see’ situation. You have direct experience of them. They happened to you. You’ve been there!
That’s why Unseen Tours exists: to provide opportunities for our guides to tell their stories. Engaging in open and honest conversations with people from different walks of life can broaden perspectives about what it means to go through difficulties – beyond just a headline in a newspaper.
Please consider making a donation to help us keep our lean, core team working on growing Unseen Tours. With your help we can increase the positive social impact we are able to make to further support people through this cost of living crisis and beyond.