The 50p Lettuce (PDF edition)

Book One of The Rebuilding Lives Series. Published 22 October 2026 by Spero Cura Publishing.

Why does a lettuce cost 50p? Because the real price has been transferred elsewhere...

...to the atmosphere, to depleted soil, to public health budgets, to supply chain workers in countries most of us will never visit.

The system looks efficient. It is not. It has learned to make its true costs invisible, and the same logic runs through the welfare system, the housing system, and every crisis support service in the country. The costs do not disappear. They migrate: to A&E, to emergency housing, to the criminal justice system, at five times the original cost. The 50p Lettuce is about that pattern, and what a genuinely different approach looks like in practice.

Drawing on fifteen years of frontline experience delivering the Rebuilding Lives model, Mark Goodway MBE argues that our systems are not failing by accident. They are failing by design. And the assets required to build something better are already there, waiting for someone to ask a different question.

This is not a theoretical argument. It is an evidence-based one, grounded in what actually works, written for the leaders, funders, and commissioners with the power to change the systems that need changing.

The lettuce is still on the shelf. The question is whether we are finally ready to ask what it really costs.

"The 50p Lettuce is a provocative and timely challenge to how we think about efficiency, cost, and resilience in our social sphere. Drawing on deep experience in Bristol, Mark Goodway asks uncomfortable but necessary questions about who really pays the price for apparent efficiency, and what it would take to build systems that genuinely work for the most vulnerable. Whether or not you agree with every conclusion, this book is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the debate about how we fund and design support for communities." David Knott, CEO, The National Lottery Community Fund

What you receive: the complete book as a PDF, 6 x 9 inches, 162 pages including cover and endorsements, downloadable immediately after purchase and readable on any device. ISBN 978-1-0666754-1-8.

Also available as a paperback (£14.99) and a Kindle edition (£9.99).