Economy and public finances Ed Miliband has many challenges – but the spending review isn’t one of them 7 May 2013 by Gavin Kelly George Osborne’s immediate priorities shouldn’t distract Labour, which instead must focus on how it plans to cut the deficit Whether Labour matches the spending totals set out by George Osborne in the spending review is deemed to be one of the most significant questions in British politics and the sternest test yet of Ed Miliband‘s leadership. But like many self-evident truths that … Continued READ MORE
Housing The ticking debt bomb? 2 May 2013 by Matthew Whittaker This blog originally appeared on Public Finance When the financial crisis first hit, politicians of all parties talked up the notion of ‘rebalancing’ the economy, moving away from a growth model dependent on financial services, house price increases and consumption and towards one based on the real economy and on trade. Five years on and, with … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Labour’s recovery position 29 April 2013 by Gavin Kelly To assert that the next general election will be about living standards is now a commonplace in Westminster, even a cliche. Say it and people nod along. But precisely what this means – the progress the public thinks is possible, the purchase they believe political parties have on the main policy issues – remains rather hazy. Some … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Taking a local look: Household disposable income 24 April 2013 by Giselle Cory Today’s figures from the ONS show that household disposable income continued to fall in 2011. This is part of a longer term trend of stagnation and decline in incomes that began around 2003. As we showed in the Commission on Living Standards, disposable income per head fell in every English region outside London from 2003 to 2008, even … Continued READ MORE
Labour market How does the minimum wage compare to top pay? 18 April 2013 by Alex Hurrell Earlier this week the government announced that the minimum wage will rise to £6.31 from October this year. This marks a 1.9 per cent increase on the current rate of £6.19 and means the fourth straight annual fall in the real value of the minimum wage after inflation. The new rate was announced by Vince … Continued READ MORE
Labour market There’s no single, simple solution to low pay 14 April 2013 by Gavin Kelly Another year, another drop. The odds are that the impending announcement on the new rate for the national minimum wage will see a further decline in its real value, meaning a lost decade for those on the lowest pay. Wages right across the earnings spectrum have fallen, so many experts will greet this news with a shrug. But that’s unlikely … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Keeping it real 10 April 2013 by Alex Hurrell Trends in real wages under the new inflation measures Last month’s ONS Consumer Price Inflation release for February 2013 included for the first time two new inflation index series, the RPIJ (1997-2012) and the CPIH (2005-2012). These new measures have been introduced in response to concerns with the current RPI and CPI measures respectively. RPIJ … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The great tax swindle 2 April 2013 by Gavin Kelly In the week when the meaning of austerity hits home for many, the one big coalition giveaway comes in the form of the rapidly rising personal tax allowance. Any criticism about cuts to tax credits or benefits is met with the same ministerial retort: just look at the size of our tax reductions for those on low … Continued READ MORE
Labour market At Last, the Minimum Wage Debate Is Growing Up 27 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on James’s Huffington Post blog While low pay and in-work poverty have risen up the economic agenda in recent years, our policy debate has been stuck in a loop. Ask most Labour politicians about low pay and you can expect a well-intentioned but passive mixture of pride in the minimum wage and … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The Pay Squeeze Just Got Tighter and Longer 21 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on James’s Huffington Post blog As always, it’s the policy pronouncements that attract the attention on Budget day. A cheap pint is much more interesting than the minutiae of OBR figures. But the big story on Wesndesday in terms of its impact on households didn’t come from the Chancellor but from Robert … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The wage squeeze 21 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker The OBR’s latest projections for average earnings and inflation suggest that the wage squeeze will look worse over the next few years than previously feared: wages will fall further relative to prices and recover more slowly. Our analysis of the OBR figures shows that the situation is even starker for the ‘typical’ worker – those … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Budget 2013: the new childcare support excludes families who most need help 20 March 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson In a time of austerity, why is extra money being directed towards families earning £300,000, and not those on universal credit? The centrepiece of the budget will be a new system of tax-free childcare vouchers (deliberately misnamed tax relief by the government) for middle- and higher-income families. Of the nearly £1bn earmarked for childcare, £750m is going … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Easing the squeeze: a tax cut for all? 20 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker In the run up to today’s Budget, it has been widely reported that the Chancellor is set to announce a further above-inflation increase in the personal tax allowance – the amount that an individual can earn before becoming liable for income tax – meaning that it will reach the £10,000 target that the Government previously … Continued READ MORE
Welfare What does the childcare announcement really tell us? 19 March 2013 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Before we rush to dissect the government’s new childcare policy it is worth pausing to reflect on the very fact that in an unprecedented time of austerity a Conservative-led administration is proposing to spend near on £1bn on childcare. There are all sorts of caveats and problems … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Squeezed Middle: a wake-up call 13 March 2013 by Sophia Parker This blog originally appeared on Public Finance In the UK, low and middle income families face flatlining or falling living standards. But the so-called ‘squeezed middle’ is under even greater pressure in the US. What can we learn? New analysis of the ‘squeezed middle’ in America and Britain, launched today by the Resolution Foundation, raises some important pointers … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Transatlantic lessons for middle Britain 13 March 2013 by Sophia Parker This blog originally appeared on Bright Blue Today sees the launch of ‘The Squeezed Middle: the pressure on ordinary workers in America and Britain’ – a collection of essays from America’s leading thinkers in the field of living standards to understand what lessons, if any, we might draw from the US experience. You may well wonder what we … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The road to a jobs recovery is longer than it seems 12 March 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post For anyone hoping to sift a nugget of gold from recent economic data, employment stats have been the place to look. In the past year, the number of people working in the UK has risen faster than at any time since 1989, a remarkable performance from an economy … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Keeping it private 6 March 2013 by Matthew Whittaker Despite the sluggish economic recovery, employment figures continue to surprise on the upside. With the public sector rapidly being cut back, all of this employment growth is of course coming from the private sector. But what does the picture look like across the different parts of the UK? The green bars in the chart below show … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Low Pay Is Fast Becoming a Defining Challenge of Our Age 28 February 2013 by James Plunkett This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post You can tell a lot about a downturn by the image that comes to define it. From queues outside job centres in the 1970s and early 1980s to the poll tax riots that preceded the early 1990s recession, the pictures that stick in the mind have a habit … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Retirement trends in the UK 26 February 2013 by Giselle Cory We aren’t saving enough for retirement. This was one of the findings presented in Resolution Foundation’s recent audit of low to middle income households, Squeezed Britain, which showed that a massive 69 per cent of low to middle income households do not have a pension. Across all income groups the proportion failing to save for a … Continued READ MORE
Living standards The end of pledge-card politics? 22 February 2013 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog The next election will see a battered electorate in need of economic and social respite confronted by a political elite woefully lacking in resources and public trust. Never in recent times will so much be asked from leaders who have so little to respond with. The result … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Never had it so squeezed 13 February 2013 by Matthew Whittaker This post orginally appeared on Public Finance Even in the boom years, a large proportion of the population never shared the proceeds of growth. That’s even less likely today as austerity really hits home Mired as we are in a fifth year of economic crisis and austerity, it’s easy to forget that not long ago we’d … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances The coalition’s welfare cuts mean a dramatic rise in council tax for the poorest 31 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook This article originally appeared on the New Statesman The decision to reduce the budget for council tax support by 10 per cent means low-income households face a tax increase of up to £600. Accustomed to the inflated claims of successive governments, readers might be forgiven for rolling their eyes at the phrase “radical welfare reform”. Yet … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The wrong reform – at the worst possible time 30 January 2013 by Gavin Kelly Britain’s poorest households – already struggling to cope with falling wages, rising living costs, and a series of cuts to tax credits and benefits – are about to receive another blow. And very few of them know it’s coming. Within weeks they will receive an unexpected council tax bill in the post. Many will assume … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Could the Tories’ plan for re-election in 2015 cost just 10p? 28 January 2013 by Gavin Kelly Might something new be stirring on the right of politics in relation to the plight of Britain’s low paid? Just to pose the question is to invite ridicule from many on the left: how could the minimum-wage opposing, tax-credit cutting, VAT-hiking, benefit-squeezing Conservative party have anything to say to those at the sharp end of … Continued READ MORE
