Labour market· Low pay· Pay Tackling the new frontiers of low pay 23 May 2018 by Conor D’Arcy Bad policies get the most attention. Whole books have been written on government interventions that achieved the exact opposite of what they intended, or eventually delivered at miles over budget. That’s why the UK’s minimum wage – effective, popular and cheap – is such a rare thing. The latest evidence confirms the minimum wage’s continued … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Productivity & industrial strategy· Economic growth Introducing….Hamilton – The Industrial Strategy 21 May 2018 by David Willetts Today’s science speech by the Prime Minister shows how much she has in common with the great Alexander Hamilton – though she has not got her own musical yet. Hamilton’s great rival Jefferson had a picture of America as sturdy yeoman farmers enjoying their liberties under a minimalist Government. Hamilton instead saw the Federal Government … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Labour market· Pay It’ll take more than a higher minimum wage to tackle Britain’s low pay problems 18 May 2018 by Conor D’Arcy As a certain wedding this weekend highlights, some things get more attention than they deserve. When it comes to the world of low pay, all the talk in recent years has been about the National Living Wage. Now of course, this new higher minimum wage for those aged 25 and over is a big deal, … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Productivity & industrial strategy· Pay Britain’s labour market – the good (jobs), the bad (pay) and the ugly (productivity) 15 May 2018 by George Bangham This month’s labour market statistics gave us a classic mixed bag of results, with reasons to be cheerful on jobs, confused on pay, and downright depressed when it comes to Britain’s productivity record. Let’s start with the good news on jobs. Employment has hit another new high, with recent growth driven by full-time work – … Continued READ MORE
Housing The real barrier to millennials owning a home is not the mortgage – it’s the deposit 11 May 2018 by Lindsay Judge Has the heat finally gone out of the housing market? New data from the Nationwide published this week suggested it might just have, with the cost of the average home falling by more than 3 per cent in the last month. But before aspirant home buyers start putting out the flags, it’s worth setting this … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre We need to lift the burden of risk that we are loading onto young people 8 May 2018 by Laura Gardiner A key question for any politician is to ask is what it feels like to grow up in Britain today. The mood and outlook of young adults is a bellwether for the new frontiers of culture, the growth prospects of the economy and the tenor of politics. So, what is the mood among young adults … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Social mobility· Intergenerational Centre Widening inequalities between generations are impeding social mobility 8 May 2018 by Fahmida Rahman Intergenerational progress – the principle that each generation will do better than the one before – has come to a halt. Millennials in their late 20s are earning less than generation X did 15 years earlier, own half as many homes as the baby boomers, and shoulder greater levels of risk than previous generations. It’s … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre We need to start the huge task of renewing Britain’s contract between generations 8 May 2018 by Torsten Bell Politics today is one of big questions, but few answers. On Brexit that is true in bucket loads. For the Conservatives that is because they simply do not agree with each other. For Labour it is because all the incentives are to leave this as the Tories problem – ambiguity is the order of the … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre The millennial minefield: Young adults’ views on generational justice in the 21st century 4 May 2018 by Fahmida Rahman In March 2018 the Intergenerational Commission, in partnership with My Life My Say, convened a group of 30 young people to discuss issues related to intergenerational fairness. The Commission wanted to understand where their greatest concerns lay, and to test some of its policy ideas against the scrutiny of today’s young generation as part of … Continued READ MORE
Wealth & assets· Tax· Intergenerational Centre There’s something off-key about our approach to inheritance tax 2 May 2018 by Matthew Whittaker It takes something to be crowned Britain’s most hated tax – a bit like being the UK’s worst ever Eurovision entry – but that is the unwanted title held by inheritance tax. It doesn’t help that it’s a tax that’s unavoidably associated with the death of loved ones. And complexity is undoubtedly a problem too. … Continued READ MORE
Welfare 10 policies if you think you might want a Universal Basic Income but aren’t sure 30 April 2018 by Adam Corlett Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the policy idea du jour, especially among Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and Green members. But those three words by themselves are not a policy. The concept draws support for a range of different – and sometimes contradictory – reasons, and a UBI could be designed in countless ways with vastly … Continued READ MORE
Productivity & industrial strategy· Labour market Britain passes a major milestone on pay and breaks new ground on jobs – but there’s a productivity sting 17 April 2018 by Stephen Clarke This morning UK labour market passed a few living standards milestones on pay and jobs with two good pieces of news, one expected and one a surprise. We also got a hint of more good news to come. But we also got one bit of bad news. Let’s start with the good. Today pay growth … Continued READ MORE
Public spending· Housing· Intergenerational Centre The future fiscal cost of ‘Generation Rent’ 17 April 2018 by Stephen Clarke The future fiscal cost of ‘Generation Rent’ For most people the lion’s share of their income is spent housing and so forking out on accommodation when no longer earning would seem like a tall order for many. The vast majority of retired people own their own home and so have relatively low housing costs, however … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Labour market How to get family incomes growing again 16 April 2018 by Torsten Bell Lots of things matter for family incomes – but for British households as a whole nothing matters as much as the labour market. Questions of who has a job and what they get paid for doing it might not be the only determinant of our living standards – but they are certainly the first. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay Three tips on how to get a pay rise 9 April 2018 by Stephen Clarke How do you get a pay rise? This is a question most of us would like to know the answer to. Especially seeing as, following the financial crisis, we’ve experienced the worst squeeze on wages in over a hundred years. Typical weekly earnings are £15 lower than they were in 2009, and by 2020 we … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets· Welfare· Intergenerational Centre Now’s not the time for auto-pilot 6 April 2018 by Matthew Whittaker and Stephen Clarke Straightforward policy successes are a rare achievement in government and need celebrating when they arrive, lest we forget that policy matters. The recent sizeable gains the UK has made on private pension saving as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment are therefore a clear cause for cheer. But challenges remain, starting with the increase … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills The story of recent apprenticeship reforms so far: a fall in quantity, but an increase in quality 29 March 2018 by Kathleen Henehan and Helena Rose Before long the apprenticeship levy – the focus of much of the debate around post-16 education – will be a year old. Yet there’s more to the apprenticeships story than the levy. Since last April, all apprentices are required to spend at least 20 per cent of their time on off-the-job training and they must … Continued READ MORE
Labour Market Outlook· Labour market· Pay Is wage pressure building? 28 March 2018 by Stephen Clarke To what extent is wage growth picking up? This is an important question, not just for people’s pay packets but also for monetary policy makers in the Bank of England who are weighing up when to raise interest rates further. While nominal pay growth has been rising recently (up to 2.6 per cent in year … Continued READ MORE
Housing Two housing crises 23 March 2018 by We occasionally host guest blogs on important controversies and here, Ian Mulheirn responds to a blog last year by Kate Barker and Neal Hudson. Resolution Foundation’s latest housing report Home Affront is available here. We will shortly be publishing a housing policy paper as part of our Intergenerational Commission. At a time when politics has rarely been … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· Inequality & poverty What today’s household income figures tell us about 2016-17 22 March 2018 by Adam Corlett The best results can take time. We already have data for what happened to employment, prices and earnings in early 2018, but for a detailed look at household incomes the latest official data – out today – is for 2016-17. What does this release tell us about living standards, poverty and inequality back when The … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Tax· Intergenerational Centre Council tax is a farce – it’s time for a real property tax 21 March 2018 by Laura Gardiner It’s an open secret that council tax is a dog’s dinner. It was conjured up in the early 1990s as a half-way house between the hated ‘poll tax’ and the old domestic rates system, meaning those in top-band properties have much lower tax rates than those in cheaper homes. In England and Scotland, it is … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay Not quite pay growth party-time yet 21 March 2018 by Stephen Clarke Today the ONS published the latest pay growth figures covering the year to January. These, along with yesterday’s inflation data, suggest that the squeeze which has dragged down real pay for twelve months is finally over. However, at the risk of sounding Eeyore-ish, pay growth is likely to remain subdued for the rest of the … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Tax· Intergenerational Centre It’s time to properly abolish the ‘poll tax’ 20 March 2018 by Adam Corlett What is Britain’s most badly designed tax? A leading contender has to be council tax. It’s a tax based on 27 year old house valuations, but this isn’t even the biggest problem. Council tax would bear little relation to property values even if it were revalued. Typical council tax bills for the most expensive homes … Continued READ MORE
Social mobility· Intergenerational Centre Today’s problems of intergenerational inequality risk becoming tomorrow’s big social mobility divide 12 March 2018 by Fahmida Rahman Launching a review of higher education recently, the Prime Minister spoke of her wish to make the UK a country ‘where your background does not define your future’. Naturally, education is almost always pitched as the key to upward social mobility – but to what extent does it really level the playing field? It is … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances What Philip Hammond will say today: the deficit is dead, long live the debt 12 March 2018 by Torsten Bell Philip Hammond is going to give a very short speech at the Spring Statement today. There will be none of the tax and spending announcements we are used to when Chancellors rise to the Despatch Box. But short and largely announcement free as it will be, tomorrow’s speech will nonetheless represent something very significant for … Continued READ MORE
