People have been sharing their ‘small ideas to make the UK better’ – 23 little tweaks that would make a world of difference

Karen Dickinson. Updated October 19th, 2026

When we think about things we’d like to change about Britain, we tend to focus on the big stuff, like ‘finish HS2’ or ‘tackle the worrying rise in right wing extremists marching about in balaclavas’.

However, sometimes it’s the small course corrections that make the difference and add up to big changes.

Financial expert and all round good egg Martin Lewis knows this, and has recently launched the Small Ideas Initiative, a non-partisan scheme asking members of the public to offer practical ways to improve all of our lives. Examples on the website include universal allergy symbols and standardised council forms.

The scheme eschews the usual performative politics in favour of genuinely useful, implementable ideas, and it caught the attention of AskUK subreddit user smileylinzi who posted this…

‘What are your small ideas to make the UK better?

‘Martin Lewis has launched the Small Ideas Initiative. It is a charity that is non-political and is for non-controversial small ideas that could be easily implemented to make day to day life a little easier or better in the UK.

‘My husband and I are already brainstorming and most “simple” ideas we are coming up with don’t feel that simple when we unpick them. What are yours? No moaning, just good solutions to make things better. Also if you have a good one please submit them to the ideas portal!

And lots of people had some really good thoughts on the matter, like these…

‘All job listings must have the pay banding published.’
–Humble-Quote-1859

‘Learn from the Japanese. Get school kids cleaning their classrooms and tidying up at the end of the day. Would transform society after a generation or two. Maybe some regular litter picking/graffiti cleaning.

‘Might stop some from growing up and doing it and might stop people from doing it when they see little kids cleaning up their mess.’
–Agitated_Nature_5977

‘Waste cage days! My local council organised a massive skip for a day to be put on a local green and invited everyone to get rid of their junk.

‘I live in an area with high rates of flytipping and it made such a difference to the local area. Many people cannot access the tip due to not having cars to or cannot afford to pay someone to get rid of their rubbish/bulky waste. We also have a lot of unscrupulous landlords who flytip every year.

‘They organised a little tent with the neighbourhood team and local PCSO’s too so you could talk to them about local issues. I imagine this saves a lot of money then continually having to go out to each and every fly tip. The area looked a lot more cleaner and people had a bit more pride in their local area.

‘They’ve stopped doing it which is such a shame.’
–19Pip87

‘One centralised place where every job opening is advertised, with really, really good filtering and sorting.’
–Sophiiebabes

‘Recycling bottles and machines for this in supermarkets whereby you get money off your shopping. There is a scheme in Germany and I think it’s brilliant.

‘Also a way for the homeless to have some purpose during the day and make a small amount of extra income!’
–lemonandgravy31

‘A national TV ad campaign about merging in turn and motorway lane discipline.’
–bai_lan_wool

‘Designate certain High Streets as 15% VAT zones, giving people a reason to visit and a chance against Amazon.

‘Do the same with alcohol duty on pints sold in pubs.’
–ResplendentBear

‘Get rid of anti homelessnesses benches. Anti homeless benches are also anti elderly and anti disability benches. “Oh why don’t young people sit outside anymore” sit where?’
–AwarenessCrafty393

‘Make trains much cheaper.’
–jin23ny

10.

‘Make the service charge OPT-IN instead of opt-out.’
–Monsoon_Storm

11.

‘More cooking classes in school and a focus on cooking meals using cheaper ingredients from scratch.

‘Maybe lessons on batch cooking and calculating cost per meal. People would know how to save money and be healthier as adults.’
–floatinginagravyboat

12.

‘A single point of escalation for government services – especially HMRC and the DWP – where if you are just getting absolutely messed about administratively and nobody will speak to you, you can submit an escalation and they are forced to reply within a set period explaining where it is and what the delay is.’
–Ok_Grapefruit8169

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