A trial of universal basic income (UBI) will be trialled for the first time in England where 30 people will be given a monthly stipend with no strings attached.

A little over 500 years after English philosopher Sir Thomas More first mooted the idea of a wealth-sharing programme in his book Utopia — a work praised by the likes of Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx and Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin — universal basic income will be trialled in England for the first time.