RENOWNED journalists John McCarthy and Polly Toynbee will be guest speakers at a University of Teesside conference today and tomorrow.

The talks for the university's social futures institute will look at the relationship between homes, people and communities.

Ms Toynbee will speak today, at 2pm in the Centuria building, about the problems faced by the poorest paid workers in Britain.

She will draw on her experiences revealed in her recent book Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain.

While researching the book, she took the lowest paid jobs in hospitals and other public services to see how people managed to live in poverty.

Tomorrow, broadcaster Mr McCarthy, the former Lebanon hostage, will give a lecture called No Place Like Home.

The talk, at 6pm also in the Centuria building, will consider how people's homes are effected by outside events such as wars and famines.