Martin Lewis has launched a new initiative asking members of the public to suggest simple changes that could make everyday life easier.
The founder of MoneySavingExpert (MSE.com) has set up The Small Ideas Initiative, which will gather suggestions from people across the UK before turning some of the strongest into policy proposals. Ideas can cover areas including money, shopping, housing, health, schools, transport, business, policing, justice and technology.
How to submit ideas
Members of the public have until November 12, 2026 to submit their suggestions through The Small Ideas Initiative website. The initiative is intended to focus on relatively small, practical and inexpensive changes rather than major political issues.
Ideas should be realistic to implement and capable of either helping large numbers of people or making a significant difference to a smaller group.
Martin said: “Every day people daily run into the life-potholes of unintended consequences, clunky systems and poor rules that make things harder than they should be. If we can fix some of those frustration points, we can make people’s lives easier, save time and help everyone get on with work or the things they enjoy.”
What kind of ideas can people submit?
The Institute says it is looking for solutions rather than simply complaints. Suggestions need to be practical, achievable, relatively inexpensive and likely to command broad support.
Examples given by The Small Ideas Initiative include introducing standardised allergy information on menus, making real-time sewage alerts available at beaches and changing parking meters so motorists could clock out and pay for the time they actually used.
It will not consider proposals that are overly political, illegal or harmful, while very local suggestions are unlikely to qualify unless they could be applied more widely. Charities and organisations representing people who may struggle to put forward proposals themselves can also submit ideas.
Martin said the project was designed to tap into people's first-hand experience. He said: “I’ve learned in my day job that if you want to know what’s really going wrong, ask the people living it.”
Council Tax discount helped inspire new project
One of the issues that helped inspire the initiative was the process for claiming a Council Tax reduction available to some people with a severe mental impairment (SMI). People with conditions including dementia, Alzheimer's disease or who have experienced severe strokes may qualify, depending on their circumstances.
Martin and his MSE.com team have previously campaigned over differences in the application process between councils, which they argued made the system confusing and made it harder for charities to provide clear guidance. The experience helped prompt Martin to consider whether similarly small changes could be identified in other areas.
He said the idea for the Institute emerged after he was asked at a political event what advice he would have given the UK Government when it entered office. Martin said his response was that, alongside tackling major issues, it should identify smaller everyday frustrations and fix them.
What happens to the ideas?
The project is being run with innovation charity Nesta's Centre for Collective Intelligence and public participation charity Involve. Once submissions close, Nesta will initially filter the suggestions against the project's criteria.
Specialists, academics and policy experts brought together by Involve will then examine whether shortlisted ideas could work in practice and help develop them into formal policy proposals. A long list will subsequently be published so members of the public can give their views.
A cross-party panel chaired by Martin will eventually select around 50 proposals, which the Institute plans to take to governments, councils, regulators and other decision-makers and campaign to have implemented. The panel includes politicians and policy specialists from different parties, as well as social housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa. Scottish National Party MSP Emma Roddick is among the politicians taking part.
People can submit ideas to The Small Ideas Initiative until November 12.
