Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Mobility To understand inequality, we need to understand its intersections too 6 March 2019 by Fahmida Rahman and Matthew Whittaker Inequality has been moving up the political agenda in recent years. Public concern about the issue is at record levels. Politicians across the spectrum – from Theresa May’s emphasis on the ‘burning injustice’ faced by many in modern Britain, to Jeremy Corbyn’s lamentation of the ‘grotesque inequality’ that characterises the UK and other rich countries … Continued READ MORE
Work· Cities and regions Why city regions should be leading the charge on tackling low pay 3 March 2019 by Fahmida Rahman Low pay in Britain is an issue of national importance. With around one-in-five employees classed as low paid, the share of Brits who fall into this category remains well above the levels achieved by the best-performing countries in the OECD. That said, within Britain, there are huge disparities in terms of where low pay is … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Inequality & poverty What does new ONS data tell us about incomes and inequality? 26 February 2019 by Adam Corlett Today we got the first solid data about household incomes in 2017-18. Unfortunately, the figures today confirm fears that 2017-18 was not a great year for living standards progress. (Though note that the bigger sister to this release, which will give us even better data, especially on poverty, will be out at the end of … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Public finances As growth slows UK households have already taken a £1,500 living standards hit since the referendum 11 February 2019 by Torsten Bell Today we learnt that economic growth slowed significantly at the end of 2018, with GDP only growing by 0.2 per cent in the last three months of the year. This is around a third of the pre-crisis average rate. In December alone, the economy contracted by 0.4 per cent with the manufacturing sector now having … Continued READ MORE
Work· Labour Market Outlook Will 2019 see a ‘new dawn’ for pay? 3 February 2019 by Nye Cominetti What does 2019 have in store for pay? 2018 was the year in which we left behind the pay squeeze of 2017. Nominal growth increased throughout the year, reaching 3 per cent for the first time in a decade. Will this momentum continue into 2019? The Bank of England thinks so. It forecasts average pay … Continued READ MORE
Work The post-levy Apprenticeship regime is finally taking shape 27 January 2019 by Kathleen Henehan Another year, another round of worries about the impact of the Apprenticeship Levy. Are the number of starts continuing to fall; are they all being converted to MBA-level courses; and will there be further changes to the levy? Last year, the stock answer to these questions was “wait and see.” But, as we approach the … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Prices & consumption Five key takeaways on UK household spending 25 January 2019 by Laura Gardiner Yesterday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual rundown of what UK households spend their money on. Quite a bit of the ONS’s analysis focused on who spends most on takeaways. But given household consumption is perhaps the most detailed and direct window on current living standards, there’s plenty more of interest in … Continued READ MORE
Work Tight labour market breaks new ground on jobs 22 January 2019 by Stephen Clarke The UK labour market continues to confound. It seemed as though the seven year spurt in employment that began in late 2012 had come to an end in 2018. The number of people in work barely increased in the summer of last year and even fell in the three months to August. However, unlike many … Continued READ MORE
Housing The one million missing homes? 12 January 2019 by Lindsay Judge The relationship between housing supply and demand is always going to be of interest to those (like us) who care about living standards and housing costs. The ONS household figures published last month have prompted us to think more about this topic, especially given the new data suggests fewer households will form over the next … Continued READ MORE
Wealth· Tax How wealth taxes can raise billions more without scaring any horses 3 January 2019 by Torsten Bell and Adam Corlett Raising taxes is never easy. Raising taxes with the government’s slim parliamentary majority is harder still. Raising taxes on wealth in those circumstances, given our diverging senses of fairness is… not a walk in the park. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need doing, and the good news is that significant progress can be made … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Inequality & poverty· Work The £3.2bn pay penalty facing black and ethnic minority workers 27 December 2018 by Kathleen Henehan It’s that time of the year when everyone does their reviews of 2018. The political review of the year will inevitably be dominated by the thrills and spills of Brexit. But for those interested in public policy, a strong contender for the Resolution Foundation’s ‘policy that could make a big difference to people’s living standards’ … Continued READ MORE
Housing Home ownership is rising, but the crisis is far from over 22 December 2018 by Daniel Tomlinson Across the country today hundreds of thousands of twenty and thirtysomethings are heading back to their parents’ homes for Christmas. Most (around two-thirds) of these parents are home owners, but the same cannot be said for their kids. Home ownership rates have fallen across all age groups in the UK in recent decades, with the … Continued READ MORE
Social security Boosting benefit take-up is critical to the success of Universal Credit, but we might not be able to measure whether it’s working 20 December 2018 by George Bangham and Adam Corlett Benefit take-up rates matter. A lot. If households aren’t actually receiving the benefits that government policy entitles them to, their incomes will be lower and the social safety net will not work as intended. The government’s own estimates of benefits take-up suggest that billions of pounds worth of benefits probably go unclaimed each year. Take-up … Continued READ MORE
Social security Three steps to make it a happier new year for Universal Credit 18 December 2018 by Laura Gardiner Universal Credit (UC) was a surprise contender for one of the big stories of the Budget, with the Chancellor announcing a welcome reinjection of cash into the system. UC has (finally) hit another important milestone too – as of December 2018, it is on offer to all new claimants of working-age benefits in jobcentres across … Continued READ MORE
Work Enforce the rules to help workers in Britain’s changing workforce 17 December 2018 by Lindsay Judge It’s here at last. Almost a year and a half after the Taylor Review was published and four consultations on, the government has finally released its plan of action to improve the quality of jobs in the UK. So is this an early Christmas present for the millions of people who work through an agency, … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances Hitting the books: student loans and the public finances 16 December 2018 by Matthew Whittaker With everything that’s going on in British politics right now, it’s easy to forget that the government was celebrating some seriously good news just seven weeks ago. You might remember that the Chancellor got handed a £74 billion fiscal windfall at the Budget that allowed him to deliver the long-promised extra spending on the NHS … Continued READ MORE
Work Good tidings from the UK labour market 11 December 2018 by Nye Cominetti Earlier this year, in a fit of optimism, the ONS moved its monthly labour market stats release from Wednesday to Tuesday morning so that the data would have proper scrutiny before PMQs. With little in the way of voting going on, MPs can now spend the next 24 hours poring over the latest employment and … Continued READ MORE
Work Apprenticeships have a starring role in the government’s technical education reforms. But are they delivering? 8 December 2018 by Kathleen Henehan Rarely a headline-grabber in the broadsheets (or indeed, the tabloids), yesterday’s speech on technical education by the Education Secretary offered a welcome respite from the mind-numbing livestream of Brexit-related updates. The central premise of Damian Hinds’ speech – that the UK’s technical education system should offer young people clear routes into specialist, well-paid careers – … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Wealth· Generations The Bank of Mum and Dad pays out at least three times in life 4 December 2018 by Torsten Bell Times change, Britain changes, and it doesn’t stop changing just because we’re all naturally obsessed by Brexit. Our need to understand and respond to those changes is as big as ever – and nowhere is that more true than in the growing importance in our society of wealth, which has risen from three times our … Continued READ MORE
Migration· Work Migratory patterns in Britain’s labour market 13 November 2018 by Stephen Clarke More records tumbled in the UK labour market this summer. On jobs, we had good news on quantity and quality as the people in full-time employment reached a record high of nearly 24 million. And this record high is all the more striking as it came alongside a record fall in the number of EU … Continued READ MORE
Firms· Work Relocation, relocation, relocation – why workers in firms are increasingly staying put 13 November 2018 by Stephen Clarke Channel 4 (or at least some of it) is off to Leeds. Some staff may be relishing the move, some may have wanted to move to Manchester or Birmingham, while others may have just wanted to stay put. Despite the mixed feelings one thing is undisputed; Channel 4 staff are now part of an increasingly … Continued READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Work· Housing· Generations All aboard the Millennial Express – longer commutes for less pay 8 November 2018 by Nye Cominetti The ONS serve to uplift and depress analysts like me in equal measure. And today they served up the latter, with new figures showing that the number of people commuting for more than an hour to get into work has increased by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2011. Longer commutes are good news … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public finances Pessimism, Politics and Economics: the real Budget story 2 November 2018 by James Smith Debates following this week’s Budget have been dominated by political arguments about whether the Chancellor’s spending splurge means that austerity had been ended or lives on (our view: austerity was significantly eased but not ended). But another debate has been conspicuously absent this week, having dominated the UK’s political economy for the past eight years: … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Work Never mind the end of austerity, what about the end of low pay? 2 November 2018 by Conor D’Arcy While post-Budget debates on austerity and tax cuts rumble on, one clear living standards win on Monday was an increase in the National Living Wage (NLW). But beyond announcing the rate for next year, the government also used the Budget to set out a bold new aspiration that could have major implications: ending low pay. … Continued READ MORE
Housing Lifting the lid on the HRA cap 31 October 2018 by Lindsay Judge and Daniel Tomlinson Budget 2018 may have been a bigger deal than most of us expected but it’s been underwhelming when it comes to housing, especially given the government claimed just weeks ago that ‘solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation’. That said, we do now have details about the lifting of … Continued READ MORE
