Tackling inequality is one of my greatest passions, it quite literally gets me out of bed in the morning.

It’s also quite well established now that the more representative decisions making bodies are, the more all of us benefit, no matter if we belong to an underrepresented group or not. The past decade has been a historical time in politics for minorities and activist groups have many proud achievements to celebrate in the name of diversity (yet of course, we still have so very far to go), but there’s one spectrum of diversity that’s not doing so well lately, and we don’t really appear to be tackling it head on, and that’s financial diversity.

Politics favours the rich. Not just because we aren’t doing enough to create a more fair society, but because Parliament is the most unrepresentative forum you could imagine, and by design: unless you’ve got a spare £34k knocking about, as Isabel Hardman estimated in the Spectator last year, you’d better be prepared to work 50 hours a week and volunteer maybe 20 on top of that if you want a chance of ever standing as a parliamentary candidate.

And sadly it’s not the only unrepresentative decision making place in terms of diversity.  So is our very own conference. That’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just that maybe we’re not so aware of financial diversity and how underrepresented those on lower incomes are in society, and in our party.

The barriers to access aren’t always obvious. It’s not just the inability to pay for conference registration that might be preventative, it’s the travel costs, accommodation, disability related costs, potential loss of earnings, sustenance, childcare and simple self prejudice that you don’t believe you belong at a “conference” in the first place. Maybe your parents never went to one, and quite frankly you don’t even really know what a conference is.

But there’s something we can do, and there’s something that’s already been done. I’m so grateful to the work that the Conference Team has done this year in getting the Conference Access Fund off the ground, and I’m really pleased to have been able to help in the process. The FCC recently set up a financial inclusion working group, which I was lucky enough to be a member of following my paper submission to Federal Conference Committee, calling for a more financially diverse conference.

The fund covers up to £100 for accommodation and travel, and £100 for childcare, as well as circumstance related funding for disability related costs. If you’ve got something to say at conference, and you can’t afford to go, please apply to the fund, we need you there.

The further reality is, the diverse voices we need at conference, and that we need to encourage in politics, might not be reading Lib Dem Voice, and there’s plenty more who are not even members of the party. We need to actively reach out to these people to combat the self prejudices that people have about where they belong, and where their voice matters.

So here’s my to final point.  If you feel financially excluded, because you simply don’t ever have cash flow, and you’re always worrying about the very fine line between black, red, and unauthorised overdraft charges, and even the thought of buying a ticket to be refunded by the Access Fund puts you off, speak to the conference office about your situation. If you feel like you’ve got something to say, there’s a way to get to conference, and you deserve to be there*.

So let’s all make conference more financially diverse: if you cannot afford to attend conference, apply to the access fund and come! If you can afford to attend conference but can’t contribute to the access fund yourself, encourage others that wouldn’t go to conference to apply to it! And if you’ve got a bit of money that you were going to spend on a first class ticket to conference, maybe go standard class and donate the difference to the fund instead.

So much of how the world operates doesn’t favour those on lower incomes, so we need more voices from lower incomes in politics. Let’s make this conference, and our party, more financially diverse.

*On that note, I personally attend conference as a steward, not just because it’s the way that I make it financially viable for me, but also because having something to do whilst at conference really helps me engage with the experience more. I recommend applying! You can find more information here.

* Joe Richards is a campaigner, occasional writer, economist, swimmer and Saints supporter. He is interested in income equality & international human rights.