Little shop... big idea...

Unpackaged is a shop in East London London with a big mission. This quote from their website summarises their philosophy:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” (Buckminster Fuller)

Catherine Conway in her beautiful shop

Catherine Conway set up Unpackaged in 2006, starting off as a market stall and moving to premises in 2007. 

She had a simple but brilliant idea - so brilliant in fact that this year it's been listed as a Timeout London Best Shop and tours and study groups go there to see it.

So what's the idea?

She wanted a way to reuse containers and refill them when she went shopping for groceries. Before I tell you more about Unpackaged itself, I want to pause and talk about why using less packaging is so important.

But can't we just recycle?

Recycling is great. It's a green industry and it saves stuff from going to our nearly-full landfills or into polluting incinerators. 



this man just loves recycling bottles

But recycling is 'after the fact'. It's like sticking a plaster on something that's broken, rather than fixing it. 

Recycling in India

Recycling uses huge amounts of fuel/energy (both in the actual processes and the transport of much of our UK recyclables abroad, for example to India and China), adding to pollution and climate change.


Not only that, but recycling is often not actually recycling. It's downcycling. 

This means that rather than a product being turned into another similar product (a plastic bottle into a plastic bottle) it is turned into a lower grade material or a secondary product (a plastic bottle into carpet backing) and then so on, down the chain. That's not to mention the huge volume of recyclables that end up contaminated (from food for example)and are discarded as soon as they reach the recycling plant. 

As Annie Leonard says in her book The Story of Stuff, "There's a reason recycling comes third in the eco mantra 'reduce, reuse, recycle'". It's part of the solution but not the whole solution. If you've got a few minutes now, watch Annie's video on youtube here to find out a bit more about how your stuff is made and why you need to care about it.

So this is where being 'unpackaged' comes in. 

Having less packaging in the first place uses less resources from start to finish - less water, fuel and materials to make the packaging, less burden on waste disposal and recycling facilities.

There's also another clever element to buying unpackaged. You can buy the amount you actually want rather than how much is in the packaging. Do you actually want twelve satsumas, or would you rather have 5? We throw away an average of £420/year per household, which costs the country £12 BILLION a year in disposal costs. Surely reducing that, especially in the face of our economic situation, rates pine fresh on the Commonsense Sniff-o-meter. Have a look at this page of the LoveFoodHateWaste site to find out more about why wasting less food matters.

Obviously, some packaging is good. You can't just put meat and fish straight into your bag, and some products need protection in transit to the shop and home. But many products don't - your apples don't actually need to come in a little tray which is then wrapped in clingfilm. 

Unpackaged takes this a step further. You go along with empty containers - anything you like, it could be Kath Kidston tins or old water bottles - and you fill them up at the shop. The foods are frequently replenished so produce is kept fresh and you use scoops so it's all hygienic. No need for packaging! It's also cheaper because you're not paying for the packaging and labelling - costs which, believe it or not, are factored into the price you pay. Do you really want to be paying for that random plastic bag inside your cornflakes box? Or the plastic bag that your potatoes come in when you're going to wash and peel them anyway?!

This isn't a new idea. I remember going to a health food shop in Dorset as a child with my step-grandmother and being surprised as she proceeded to fill a large jar up with oats, sultanas, raisins, dried apple and wheat flakes, making her own, tailored muesli. And going back even further, it used to be standard practice to take a shopping basket or bag out with you when you did your food shop and you'd just pop your purchases straight in there.

The international chain Wholefoods also sells many foods unpackaged, from fruit and veg to bulk by pasta and lentils. Here's what they say:
Reusing means you're not only using stuff again, it means less energy is being used to make more stuff. And that means you are keeping waste out of our landfills, less energy from being processed and less resources from being consumed — all from bringing a reusable lunch bag. Talk about not taking much to make quite an impact.
Now, keep thinking with us. You're using that lunch bag again and again. Know what else you're doing? Saving money. That's right! A penny saved is a penny earned and you just proved it. Reusing is an eco-nomical thing to do too.

 
 Unpackaged are great not only because of how their shop sells but because they also offer consultancy to companies of all sizes on how to go 'unpackaged'. This way, they're not just sticking to their own premises but helping spread the word and the methods. 


And this is really the key. Shops that sell unpackaged are rarely mainstream. We need the big supermarkets and the manufacturers they use to move into the 21st Century and start reducing from the top - it would save us all time, fuel and money.

youcanarguewithstupid

Further reading/sources:
Lovefoodhatewaste - for tons of great info on how to waste less food
WRAP - Waste and Resources Action Programme, works on reducing waste and increasing sustainability

Daily Mail article on sending our recycling to India here 

The Telegraph on the volume of household waste we throw away here

The forefront of a fairer society... the Islington Fairness Commission

As logos go, this isn't the most
thrilling - but the Commission is
worth reading about

Andy Hull

At the My Fair London launch that I wrote about here one of the speakers was Andy Hull who is the co-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission (IFC).

He spoke a bit about what the IFC has been doing, and it was so impressive that I'm dedicating a post to it.

It serves as an example to boroughs everywhere of what can be achieved, moving towards a more equal society where residents are healthier, better educated, in employment and less divided from one another.

The IFC was the first fairness commission, but now Blackpool, York, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield have all started their own up. If you live in a borough without one, why not write a letter/email to your council asking them if they know about the IFC and whether they might set one up themselves?

It was set up in June 2010, inspired by The Spirit Level book which explained how societies with more inequality are overall worse off that societies with less. On its board are a selection of councillors, academic experts and representatives from various sectors such as the NHS and the police.

Islington is a very mixed borough - it has wealthy areas, such as Upper Street which is full of delis and boutiques, and it also has areas of dire poverty and disengagement. Here are some stats about Islington that really hit home why something needed to be done. It has the:

• lowest male life expectancy in London

• 3rd highest crime rate in London

• 2nd highest rate of child poverty in the country

• unemployment among its black and minority ethnic residents is twice that of its white residents

Through a series of meetings using evidence from academics and residents, it reported to Islington Council and made practical recommendations on how to improve life for people living in Islington.

In October 2011, the Council started implementing the recommendations made by the Commission.

In that short amount of time, they have done or have set the ball rolling to do so much good stuff - stuff like moving 186 severely overcrowded households to larger properties, promoting volunteering or residents, helping find affordable childcare, negotiating with TfL to get the Bike Hire scheme extended to Islington, vigorously campaigning for Islington companies to be more socially responsible and trying to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen this piece of music video genius, then you need to.


Below I've given a little more detail on what they're doing about pay inequality, debt, employment, green spaces and crime, just to give you an idea of how they're going about it. You can read the full reports on the IFC's webpage at www.islington.gov.uk/fairness.

PAY

by David G Kline from www.nytimes.com

The IFC wants to reduce the pay ratio in Islington. I wrote about what pay ratio is on my earlier post here - it means making the gap between the top and the bottom earners smaller.

To do this in Islington they have:

• reduced the pay of the incoming Chief Executive by £50,000 in comparison to the pay of his predecessor
• brought in the London Living Wage for all Council staff - they're currently working on extending that to all contracted staff too
• they will be meeting with the 100 largest employers in Islington to encourage them to reduce their pay differentials if they are very high, and to publish their pay differentials on a council-run website

DEBT

I wrote a bit about the debt problem we have in the UK in this post. To help residents in debt, Islington is/has:

• helping people with multiple debts consolidate them into one payment so it is more manageable and less stressful
• established a Citizens Advice Bureau locally, giving out free debt advice
• sent mystery shoppers to payday loans companies to check they are operating legally - that is, not giving out loans to people with no ability to pay them back, and not aggressively targeting vulnerable customers.

EMPLOYMENT

We all know that unemployment is a massive problem in the UK right now. The economic downturn has put many people out of work and prevented many young people from getting into it. Islington has the amibitious and impressive target of having no young people who are not in education, employment or training by 2015 (commonly called NEETs). To kickstart this, Islington has:

• placed 119 residents into work and 40 into apprenticeships through its 'Single Employer Face'
• piloted a scheme offering 14 to 16 year olds paid local work experience
• started 'Business Works' - a mentoring, development and paid work experience scheme. It helps young people leaving care by pairing them up with a mentor for regular meetings. They help them with skills such as interview technique, confidence on public transport and much more

GREEN SPACES

From www.katiebacon.co.uk

Islington have recognised that in a built up city area, green spaces are very important. They create a public area where people can meet and cross the divides between demographics, they create opportunities for exercise, amongst many other benefits.

So, they have:

• given funding to local residents groups to maintain 5 sites that were previously maintained by a company contracted by the council - this means local people getting involved in their local area, an excellent plan brought 6 new spaces into public use for gardening and play

CRIME

we all know what crime looks like, so I
thought I'd give you a pretty picture of
some tulips instead, much nicer

Islington has a lot of crime and a lot of 'gang' issues. To help ease these, they have:

• set up a hotline for reporting anti-social behaviour
• been accepted by the Ministry of Justice as one of two pilot areas in London for trialling Neighbourhood Resolution panels which bring victims, perpertrators and criminal justice professionals together for restorative justice
• they have a couple of schemes under way or being created that help people under threat of gang violence or on the fringes of gangs away from those situations 

The really good thing about the IFC is that it's ACTUALLY GETTING STUFF DONE. It's not just another 'talking shop'.

This sort of grassroots, proactive approach is exactly what's needed. I hope it goes from strength to strength, and look forward to finding out more about the other UK fairness commissions too.

Like I said at the start, why not send a quick email to your borough and ask them about setting one up? The time is ripe.

youcanarguewithstupid

Sources/further reading:
www.islington.gov.uk/fairness for the IFC's reports
www.equalitytrust.org.uk for evidence on why equality matters
www.livingwage.org.uk for the Living Wage Foundation - there's also a wikipedia page that explains what it's about

Zipcar...cheaper, greener and cleverer

This post is part of a thread on 'collaborative consumption' - look out for a big feature coming soon on what exactly that means and a review of the book Collaborative Consumption.

Zipcar is genius. It saves you money, time and stress and is a more sustainable choice.

It's a car-sharing company. It's hugely successful and growing every year. In fact, a lot of people out there think that companies like this are at the forefront of a revolution in how we own and use things. In the UK Zipcar is currently in London, Bristol, Cambridge, Maidstone and Oxford... so far. In the US, it is in 13 states and has 650,000 members (as of 2011).

Here are a few insightful quotes from the book Collaborative Consumption to get you thinking about what Zipcar might really be about, other than sharing a car:

• Why is it that we spend so much time teaching children how to share their toys nicely but for adults sharing becomes a loaded concept?

• What you really want is the hole not the drill - Victor Papanek

• When you think about it, there is no rational reason behind the notion that sleeping in a hotel bed or using a towel that hundreds of people used is acceptable, but sharing a vacuum cleaner with neighbours is abnormal

So Zipcar is one example of what are known as PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEMS. That is, a system that offers you the service which the product provides. Getting to your destination - not owning the car that gets you there.

It's not a new idea at all - think about hotels, libraries, gyms.

But there's a new perspective on it - about how we can expand it and save ourselves space, time, stress and money, and help create a sustainable planet too. It's a pretty good combination.

How does Zipcar work?

Zipcar say that the scheme is for you if you:

• Want to save money
• Mainly take public transport but sometimes need/want a car
• Don't want to hassle of owning a car
• Care about the planet

I don't think Zipcar have this
particular model

If you've ever used one of the shared bicycles in London, this works pretty much exactly the same. You sign up, pay an annual or monthly fee (for example in London an annual subscription for occasional use is £59.50), and then you receive your Zipcard. You are now a Zipster! This card unlocks your chosen car for you. You pay per hour or per day for it; charges are around £5/day.

In return for your fees, you get your fuel, insurance, servicing and MOTs and in London, congestion charge all paid for. All the burdens that come with owning a car - taking it to the garage, pretending you know what the mechanic's talking about, worrying about getting the tax disc done... it's all taken care of, and you can still hop in and get where you need to go.

Nor this

Zipcar say that average car users save an estimated £380/month when they switch to car sharing.

It's not only financial, stress-reducing and sustainbility gains you get from it either. Zipcar have many different makes and models of cars, so you get to try out different ones: one of the slogans they use in the USA is:

 "Today's a BMW day. Or is it a Volvo day?"


To find a car, you can just search online (or on their App) on their map using your postcode. The key to Zipcar's success is that they have plenty of cars, so the likelihood is there are a variety near you. As an experiment, I just searched the map to see what was near me: within 5 minutes walk of my flat there are 4 Zipcars: 3 Volkswagon Golfs and 2 BMW 1 series. I'm even more impressed now! 

Who doesn't want an animal-themed car?

Zipcar's CEO says that "access is more important than ownership" [here] and forecasts growth for sharing models of consumption. Since 2001 his company has won a ridiculous number of awards. Fortune magazine called it "the best new idea in business" in 2009.

If you live in a city and don't need a car every day, this idea is well worth giving serious thought to.

youcanarguewithstupid

Further reading:
Zipcar's site is www.zipcar.com and is really user-friendly
Rachel Botsman, the author of Collaborative Consumption, did a TEDTalk - you can watch it here

Campaign Corner... My Fair London

This afternoon I went to the launch of My Fair London at the Old Vic Tunnels.

The campaign has been set up by the London Equality Group, described as an "autonomous collective of more than 200 Londoners loosely affiliated to the Equality Trust".

This group is setting out to reduce inequality in London. Their first big action is this awareness raising campaign - My Fair London - which wants each mayoral candidate to sign up to their manifesto by polling day (3rd May). So far, Ken Livingston (Labour), Jenny Jones (Green) and Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) have signed it... that just leaves mop-haired Boris.

Why not bash of a quick email to Boris and ask him to sign up? His email address is mayor@london.gov.uk.

There's another really easy action you can take...

They need you to sign their petition [find it here] - they have a target of 10,000 signatures by 3rd May. In a city of close to 8 million people, that shouldn't be too hard if we help spread the word.

What's wrong with inequality?

There is an absolute truckload of research out there proving that inequality in a society causes enormous problems - and not just for the poorest, but for the rich too. This became national news in 2009 when Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson published their book The Spirit Level. It contains a wealth of information on why inequality is bad for us all.
You can read more evidence in detail here at the Equality Trust and there are more links to other sources at the bottom of this post.

Essentially, it's been proven that life expectancy, health (both bodily and mental) and crime rate amongst other issues are worse in countries and cities with greater inequality.
The graph below shows you this according to countries. The more unequal the country, the worse the social problems are:

from the Equality Trust here

The Equality Trust also says this:

If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:

- Murder rates could halve
- Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
- Obesity could halve
- Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
- Teen births could reduce by 80%
- Levels of trust could increase by 85%

So that's the research behind this drive against inequality. Of course there is also a rather large moral argument, but people like a bit of empirical data in their morality stew these days.

You can view My Fair London's manifesto here - it's accessibly written and very clear. 

It asks the mayoral candidates to say that if they win, they will do a number of things to promote greater equality in London. The main area it focuses on is pay inequality. 

Pay inequality has been all over the place lately - see my previous post on the maximum wage idea here. There's also the London Living Wage campaign, which I'll do a post on soon.

Tackle pay inequality by...changing pay ratios

The key idea in this issue is pay ratio.

I like to think of pay ratio
as "Who ate all the pie?"

This isn't about levelling out pay until everyone earns the same amount. It's just about making the gap between the people earning the most and the people earning the least a bit smaller. That would reduce inequality across society.

The main figure bandied about as the ideal pay ratio is 10:1 - i.e. the top earners would not earn more than ten times what the bottom earners do. Other figures vary from 7:1 to 20:1.

The Green Party have been onto this
whole 10:1 business for a while

It's hard to estimate the pay ratios that we actually have at the moment because, unsurprisingly, most companies don't go around shouting about how much their CEOs earn.

The Commonsense Sniff-o-meter
on youcanarguewithstupid:
rotten haddock - eggy - pine fresh

But as an example, Barclays paid its Chief Executive £4,365,636 last year. Meanwhile, their Customer Advisors in the lowest pay bracket earn £12,665/year. This is a ratio of 344:1. That rates rotten haddock on my Commonsense Sniff-o-meter. [figures from here and here].

So My Fair London wants the mayor to tackle this by:

• Challenging all employers to publish the income gap between their lowest and highest earners.

• Challenging London’s wealthiest citizens to sign a petition asking parliament to increase their income tax as a sign of
of their commitment to make London more equal, like the Patriotic Millionaires [see here for this truly impressive campaign] in the USA.

• Reduce the pay ratio within the Greater London Authority (the administrative body for Greater London) from highest to lowest earners to 10:1.

• Require all employers used by the GLA to pay their workers the London Living Wage.

• Vigorously lobbying the government for more progressive taxation policies and for changes to business regulations to encourage fair pay ratios.

They also want the Mayor to establish a Fairness Commission for London to bring together all the evidence about inequality in London and use it to inform strategy.

There are several other components to the manifesto that you can see on the 4th page of this PDF.

What happened at the launch today?

Well, we all got free Oyster card wallets with the My Fair London logo on them, not to mention the free cupcakes decorated with the logo too!

The 4 panelists spoke on a range of issues relating to inequality. They were:

Kate Pickett with The Spirit Level
co-author Richard Wilkinson

Kate Pickett was co-author of the immensely influential 2009 book The Spirit Level, which everyone who's interested in society should read (so, everyone basically). She's also co-founder of the Equality Trust.

Michael Robinson, BBC journalist who presented the documentary The Wealth Gap.

Andy Hull, smiley guy

Andy Hull, this guy was amazing. He's on Islington Council and is vice-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission which is truly an example to hold up high for a fairer, happier society.

Dr Faiza Shaheen, from the New Economics Foundation [previous post on their big idea for a shorter work week here].

Alex Bax of the London Equality Group managed the show and gave a galvanising introduction to the themes of the campaign. As is often the case with panel events, there was rather a lot of waffle, so I'm culling all that to give you some basic points in a nutshell.

Kate Pickett said that: 

• Inequality in most areas has increased since 2009
• There is a growing awareness of the need for better social cohesion (Cameron's Big Society) and yet it seems to be a lot of talk and less action
• We no longer think greed is good - the anti-bonus backlash
• "Our current economic model isn't working. Our current ideology has failed us. Austerity might be needed, but austerity for whom?"

• We need redistribution and rebalancing
• Those at the top that would pay more tax etc may think that they would be disadvantaged, but actually they would benefit - The Spirit Level showed that in more equal societies, everyone - rich and poorer - benefits in myriad ways

Adam Hull spoke about what the Islington Fairness Commission has been up to since it was established in June 2010. It is a truly impressive body. I'm going to give it its own post, rather than make this one overlong, but suffice to say if you read the manifesto of my Fair London and think, gee whizz, that's never going to happen, the Islington Fairness Commission is showing that changes really can be made.

All in all, My Fair London is a great campaign which will serve to highlight the endemic inequality we have across London in every area (geographical and social). If it gets enough support (and signatures, don't forget to sign it here), it will hopefully mean that whoever our next mayor is, he/she can't afford to ignore the public wish for change and a more equal London in the future.

youcanarguewithstupid

Sources/further reading:

The High Pay Commission which led an independent inquiry into pay in the private sector

"Does income inequality cause health and social problems?" - a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

London's Poverty Profile - independent source of information about poverty and inequality in London

New Economics Foundation report on pay ratios here

"Britain's Livelihood Crisis" - a pamphlet by Steward Lansley for the TUC on how rising prosperity has not trickled down to those workers at the bottom

A selection of articles written by Kate Pickett for the Guardian here

The Equality Trust - set up in response to the Spirit Level

Saving the future from debt... Financial Education

This is an idea that could really help a future generation from getting into some of the difficulties that their parents have fallen prey to.

What is it?

Some people are saying that we ought to have mandatory education on financial matters (like what APR actually means, and calculating how much tax or interest you will have) i.e. financial education.

Why are they saying that?

Well, the UK has a problem. A problem that looks like this:

• Every day in the UK 331 people are declared insolvent or bankrupt. This is equivalent to 1 person every 60 seconds during each working day.

• 101 properties are repossessed every day

• 9,072 new debt problems dealt with by Citizen Advice Bureaux each working day

• Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £7,948 in December.

People don't understand how to budget, what things like APR mean, how store cards, credit cards and payday loans work and the effect that getting into arrears/debt can have on the rest of their life.

But this can change

Before the general election in 2010, financial education was a hot topic and it was on Labour's agenda. But then the election happened and we changed government, and it got pushed aside.

In September 2014 a new curriculum for all subjects will be introduced. That means that this year and next are crucial for debate on what should go on it.


I'm pretty passionate about schooling actually giving kids what they'll need to be competent, engaged citizens.


I certainly didn't learn about interest, tax, how store cards work or anything of that sort when I was at school and it would have been really useful to have some sort of grounding in it before it came to the time to actually use those products.

The Commonsense Sniff-o-meter
on youcanarguewithstupid:
rotten haddock - eggy - pine fresh

On the Commonsense Sniff-o-meter this is definitely Pine Fresh. There are several initiatives focussing on financial capability (also called financial literacy) - largely as partnerships between banks and NGOs/charities - to help improve the money management of people of all ages. There are links to some of these at the bottom. They do great work but it would be even better if we had financial education on the statute books so that no one could fall through the net. It could help to create a whole generation of 'financially capable' young people.

So who's behind it?

A heck of a lot of people, and lots of them could have real clout in getting it on our compulsory curriculum.

Scrabble fanatic Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis of www.moneysavingexpert.com has been instrumental in getting this issue heard about and debated. He says:

"As a nation, we've educated our youth into debt but never about debt."

In 2011, he started an e-petition for compulsory financial education in schools. E-petitions are an exercise in direct democracy - if you start one up and it gets to the magic number of 100,000 signatures, the petition is considered for a debate in the House of Commons. This is exactly what happened in late October.


On December 15th, that debate took place.

House of Commons debate, 1886

Nick Gibb, the Minister for Schools, was there and he said this: "I think we're all in agreement about the importance of good quality financial education. It is true that young people are growing up in a materialistic world that they are not prepared for."

The Commonsense Sniff-o-meter
on youcanarguewithstupid:
rotten haddock - eggy - pine fresh

That sounds promising, but it's not a commitment. Generally the government line has been that they think it's a good idea and that we need to teach schoolchildren about money and give them maths skills that are applicable to real life BUT they're making no promises about it being compulsory. Which to me, is a bit eggy.

And that's not all...

There's also what's called an APPG on Financial Education.

APPG = All-Party Parliamentary Group - it means a group of MPs and/or Lords from all different parties, who come together in a group on a specific issue. It's great because it's cross-party, so they're not just getting bogged down in their own party ideals or issues.

The APPG on Financial Education for Young People (launched in January 2011) has 225 members - this makes it one of the biggest ever APPGs. You can read more about it on its page here.

It has a huge list of supporters, such as Action for Children, Barclays, British Banks Association, HSBC, NUS, Lloyds and UCAS. Basically it seems that most of the main players in finance or youth activities want this to happen.

Don't forget Vorders...

Vorderman at the National Television
Awards 2012

Ah, Carol. She led a study for the Conservatives in 2009 looking into financial education and recommended the very clever tactic of splitting maths into two subjects (like we do with English Literature and English Language) - so 'pure' maths ( stuff like algebra and geometry) and 'functional' maths (financial literacy).

This would mean that for those not very skilled at complex maths, there would still be the opportunity to learn what they needed to understand their finances as adults. 


She said this:
“In my view, it is pointless for most 14-year-olds starting their GCSE courses, to be force-fed mathematical topics which they will never use, when what they desperately need is to become more comfortable with numbers including percentages and fractions used in the world of finance,” said Miss Vorderman. [source]

So the idea has huge backing and makes immense logical sense in the light of our current financial situation. UK citizens need to understand money management, have less debt, and learn to save for their old age and the burden of medical bills that can come with it. This could provide the kids of today with a much more financially capable and secure future.


So far there has been no commitment from the government to introduce it into compulsory education. So far, they are saying that it could be compulsory as a part of PSHE/Citizenship - but no commitments have been made and the idea of splitting maths into two parts needs more support from government. 2012 and 2013 will be crucial in keeping financial education high on the agenda and getting it on the statute books.

youcanarguewithstupid

Further reading/sources:
APPG on Financial Education here - To find out more or to express your interest in become a supporting organisation, please contact kat.hodgkinson@pfeg.org or 020 7330 9488

Statistics on debt are from here and here

Good article from ResPublica (think tank) on why adding it into PSHE isn't the right way to do it here
Barclays Money Skills for financial capability here
Money Makes Sense financial literacy help here

Martin Lewis on what would be taught in financial education here
His general financial education page with loads of links here