Unsung Britain· Living standards Unsung Britain Understanding the stresses and strains of low-to-middle income families across the country Wednesday 13 November 2024 There are around 13 million low-to-middle income families across Britain today. This diverse group of families are at the heart of the country’s economic prospects, and any government’s political mandate. And yet they are poorly understood – who they are, how their lives have changed, and the stresses and strains they are under. In order to better understand low-to-middle income Britain, the Resolution Foundation is launching a new 12-month project – with support from JPMorganChase – which will also investigate what can be done to boost their living standards. READ MORE
Living standards· Pensions & savings Living standards in later life Are auto-enrolled workers saving enough for their retirement? Thursday 10 October 2024 One of the key goals of the Pensions Commission, published almost two decades ago, was to reform pension saving so that more people were encouraged to save enough for a decent income in retirement. The main policy recommendation of the Commission – auto-enrolment – has been rolled out and ramped up since then, and in … Continued READ MORE
Living standards A brighter shade of grey? The current outlook for living standards Thursday 29 August 2024 Register to attend in person or to receive an access link for online viewers. The last Parliament was truly awful for growth in household living standards. The combination of the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis left the country on course for the worst parliament for disposable income growth since the early 1950s. But while the possibility … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Macroeconomic policy Inflation scarring How has the cost-of-living crisis changed Britain? Wednesday 22 May 2024 Economies around the world exited the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, and jumped straight into the biggest inflation surge for four decades, with a cost-of-living crisis accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But with inflation finally back close to its target of two per cent, to be confirmed by the ONS on Wednesday 22nd May, now … Continued READ MORE
Net zero· Living standards· Public spending· Prices & consumption· Productivity & industrial strategy Powering Britain Can we decarbonise electricity without disadvantaging poorer families? Monday 22 April 2024 The UK’s transition towards a net zero economy requires a complete overhaul of our power sector. We don’t just need electricity generation that has been decarbonised, but a huge amount more of it as we switch away from heating our homes with gas and powering our cars with petrol. This will require a huge step … Continued READ MORE
Universal Credit· Living standards· Welfare In credit? Assessing where Universal Credit’s long rollout has left the benefit system, and Britain Monday 15 April 2024 Universal Credit, announced back in 2010 and introduced in 2013, will be fully rolled out by whoever wins the next election. The benefit has been on a rollercoaster over those years – with the IT underpinning it causing major teething problems, and later success in processing unprecedented numbers of claims during the pandemic. In the … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Housing Building pressure? Rising rents, and what to expect in the future Monday 8 April 2024 The combination of high house prices and stagnating incomes over recent decades, coupled with the decline of social housing, mean that millions more of us are private renters. And they are renting for longer too. Private rents have risen swiftly in the wake of the pandemic. What happens next matters hugely for millions of families, … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Demographics Living life to the full How can we make our longer lives healthier, happier and more productive? Thursday 21 March 2024 Book launch for The Longevity Imperative by Professor Andrew J Scott Britain, along with many other countries, is getting older and living longer. This demographic shift has huge health, economic and societal impacts, but too often the debate is limited to the fiscal costs of an ageing society, and pressures on the NHS. Instead we … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Prices & consumption· Brexit & trade Trading standards How exposure to global trade shapes our living standards Monday 19 February 2024 Britain is an open economy, and has become more open over recent decades – despite the impact of Brexit and ‘slowbalisation’. But the quantity and type of goods and services we trade isn’t the only thing that has shifted. So has what we consume and where we work. All of these shifts affect our exposure … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Pensions & savings Saving for today. And tomorrow. How to boost households financial resilience now, and living standards in retirement Monday 12 February 2024 British households aren’t saving enough. Pensions auto-enrolment has got far more of us saving for retirement, but too many of us are not on track for a comfortable old age. More immediately, too few of us have access to rainy-day pots to help us through an unexpected shock. Traditional approaches to encourage people to build … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Economy and public finances· Political parties and elections Turning a corner? The political and economic outlook for a critical election year Monday 8 January 2024 The worst of the cost of living crisis appears to be behind us, with inflation more than halving since its peak. But 2024 may not be plain sailing economically, and it certainly won’t be politically with an election in store. While wages are at last growing faster than prices, economic growth has flatlined while taxes, … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption Rising rents and rebounding wages Where is Britain’s cost-of-living crisis heading? Thursday 14 December 2023 Inflation is down, but Britain’s cost-of-living crisis is still very much with us. The legacy of previous price rises for energy and food are now combining with a new pressure: housing. Private rents are rising at their fastest rate in over a decade, while the impact of higher interest rates is still feeding through into … Continued READ MORE
Economy 2030· Net zero· Living standards· Firms· Demographics· Productivity & industrial strategy· Brexit & trade· Cities and regions· Economic growth· Tax· Macroeconomic policy Ending Stagnation A New Economic Strategy for Britain Monday 4 December 2023 The final report of The Economy 2030 Inquiry The UK has great strengths, but is a decade and a half into a period of stagnation. The combination of slow growth and high inequality is proving toxic for low- and middle-income Britain. The result is a country falling behind its peers, where taxes, rather than wages, … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre Perma-crisis people The divergent economic prospects between generations Monday 13 November 2023 Advanced economies across the globe have experienced a series of unprecedented economic shocks since the start of the century. But they have not affected all generations equally. The disproportionate impact on the financial wellbeing of younger people has sparked concerns about generational fairness on both sides of the Atlantic. Fifteen years on from the global … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Economy and public finances Enlightened economics Lessons from Adam Smith on the economic challenges facing modern Britain Wednesday 13 September 2023 Adam Smith was a leading political economy thinker of the Scottish enlightenment in the mid-late 18th century. But as the “Father of Capitalism” his pioneering work on free market economics has influenced politicians, philosophers and economists throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries too. But modern Britain – as well as other advanced economies – … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty· Political parties and elections A living standards election? What the year ahead could mean for family - and political - fortunes Wednesday 6 September 2023 The cost of living crisis has not only dragged on longer than anyone hoped, it has evolved. As the focus has moved from energy bills to food prices, alongside rising rent and mortgage costs, the impact on different groups has changed. It will change further in the run in to a 2024 general election, with … Continued READ MORE
Economy 2030· Living standards· Labour market· Inequality & poverty· Housing Shared prosperity What would it take to see a return to rising living standards for all? Tuesday 4 July 2023 Britain is stagnating. Productivity growth is flatlining, workers today are earning the same wages as their predecessors in 2007, and living standards growth had slowed to a crawl even before today’s cost of living crisis. So we need a clear strategy for returning to rising, and widely shared, prosperity. Against that backdrop, it is important … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption Still coping? How families are faring as the cost-of-living crisis enters its second year Thursday 27 April 2023 The UK’s cost-of-living crunch has entered its second year. While inflation should fall significantly in the coming months, the crisis is far from over. Prices are rising more slowly rather than falling. And the significant government support provided last year is being scaled back, while fast rising interest rates will affect more and more homeowners … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Prices & consumption· Inequality & poverty New year, renewed squeeze? The outlook for living standards in 2023 and beyond Monday 9 January 2023 Britain’s cost-of-living crisis has been brutal this winter – even with significant government support – as bills rise and real wages fall. Inflation should ease in the year ahead, but government support is also being scaled back and rising interest rates will feed through into higher mortgage costs. The outlook is highly uncertain. How are … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Labour market· Wealth & assets· Housing· Intergenerational Centre Mortgaged millennials to bitterly cold boomers Assessing the cost of living crisis across generations Monday 14 November 2022 Rising energy bills are with us and rising mortgage bills are on the way. While wages are falling far behind inflation, debates rage about whether benefits or the state pension should do the same. Older workers have not returned to the labour market post-Covid, while younger workers may suffer most from the unemployment rise the … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Living standards· Fiscal policy· Economy and public finances· Economic growth What next? The impact of Trussonomics, tax cuts and market turmoil Thursday 29 September 2022 The last few days have seen a radical reshaping of the Government’s economic policy and a radical reaction from financial markets. Out have gone both Treasury orthodoxy and the legacy of the Johnson premiership, and in are lower taxes, higher borrowing – and higher borrowing costs as spooked markets respond. Will this new strategy boost … Continued READ MORE
Living standards A bleak midwinter? The cost-of-living crisis facing Britain and its new Prime Minister Thursday 1 September 2022 Britain is in the midst of a painful cost-of-living squeeze, with double digit inflation prompting the biggest fall in real wages since the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. And the crisis will get far worse in the coming months as inflation continues to rise, energy bills soar, and rising interest rates are felt in higher … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Inequality & poverty The long view of living standards What drives income growth and inequality in modern Britain? Monday 4 July 2022 Britain is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis that is squeezing the incomes of households across the country. That crisis is particularly challenging because it comes against a backdrop of low-income growth and high inequality. Turning these worrying trends around is a key task for the 2020s, with history providing an important guide to … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Labour market· Economy and public finances Catch 2022 What does the end of a global pandemic and the start of a European conflict mean for Britain’s economic outlook? Monday 14 March 2022 The end of the Covid economic crisis is finally in sight. But it has swiftly been replaced by a terrifying conflict in Europe that threatens lives in Ukraine and livelihoods far beyond its borders. The UK’s immediate post-Covid economy thankfully doesn’t include the lengthy dole queues that normally follow a recession. But it instead faces … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Living standards· Prices & consumption Crunch time The Living Standards Outlook for 2022 Tuesday 8 March 2022 The good news is that Britain is finally stepping out of the pandemic. The bad news is that it is stepping straight into a renewed living standards squeeze which, according to the latest Bank of England forecasts, could be the tightest one in generations. Prices, bills and taxes are all going up, and wages aren’t … Continued READ MORE
