Governance & Policy
Universal Basic Services (UBS)
Guaranteeing life's essentials — housing, food, transport, care, information — as services free at the point of need, rather than as cash.
Definition
Universal basic services is a social policy model proposing that everyone's needs be met through collectively provided services free at the point of use — extending the principle of health and education to housing, food, local transport, care and digital access. Developed by the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity (2017) as an alternative to universal basic income, UBS argues that services deliver more security per pound than cash, build shared institutions, and carry lower environmental footprints than equivalent private consumption.
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