Why the distribution of income matters for growth Social mobility up the ladder of opportunity matters. But there is also an important link between income distribution and economic growth 3 January 2023 by David Willetts There is a Conservative argument that what matters is absolute levels of income and wealth. Worries about how it is distributed are for Socialists. Conservatives should just get on with growing the total size of the cake. This view is one strand of conservatism. But there are also good Conservative reasons why this won’t do … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre The system has worked for Boomers at every stage of their lives If Tories do not wish to be seen as a party for older people, they must give the younger generation a break on housing and wages 2 September 2022 by David Willetts Lucy Burton’s powerful article last week on the wealth of many of our pensioners was absolutely right. Their incomes are higher. Their wealth is greater. The state is being reshaped around services and payments for them. Many pensioners challenge her by saying that what they get now is a fair return after they have paid in during … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre How Britain became a gerontocracy The pensions boost is further proof that Britain is run for the benefit of the older generation — paid for by the young, writes David Willetts 29 June 2022 by David Willetts Last week’s announcement of the return of the triple lock for pensions makes it clear where real political power lies in Britain. Pensioners are promised a 10 per cent increase next year, matching inflation, while basic pay is rising at just 4 per cent. This is the latest example of a deep-seated trend: our country … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre Property tax would bridge the wealth gap between ages 6 October 2021 by David Willetts It is more than ten years since I published The Pinch, setting out how huge intergenerational injustices were opening up across Britain. Or to use the more provocative wording on the cover, how baby boomers took their children’s future — and why they should give it back. The issue has risen up the agenda in recent … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Intergenerational Centre We must not let coronavirus exacerbate Britain’s intergenerational inequalities still further 8 October 2020 by David Willetts One of the biggest challenges the Government faces is to offer young people the same kind of opportunities that the Boomers enjoyed when we were young. The pay of young workers is no higher than it was ten or fifteen years ago. And getting started on the housing ladder is much harder – though the … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre War and peace – David Willetts reviews two of the latest books on Intergenerational equity for the Financial Times 3 July 2019 by David Willetts Class used to predict how people would vote in Britain and elsewhere — in 1974 if you were a member of the working class you were three times more likely to vote Labour than Conservative. Now the distribution of votes by class in the UK is almost even between Labour and Conservative: the new divide … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay· Intergenerational Centre Wrong time, wrong place – leaving education in the middle of a downturn 13 May 2019 by David Willetts Modern economies are supposed to deliver improving living standards – incrementally year-on-year, with big gains decade-on-decade. That is why it is so shocking that a 30-year-old today earns no more than a 30-year-old a decade ago, according to previous research by the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission. This is an earnings freeze on a scale unprecedented … Continued READ MORE
Pensions & savings· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre More ambition, less risk – building on the success of auto-enrolment 4 April 2019 by David Willetts and Laura Gardiner We often find it harder to celebrate policy successes than decry policy failures. So you might have missed a policy success which we are marking this week. We are about to have completed the successful initial rolling-out of automatic enrolment into occupational pension saving. Millions of employees will enjoy higher living standards in retirement as … Continued READ MORE
Public spending· Tax· Intergenerational Centre· Political parties and elections Britain is set to replace the era of austerity with a new era of tax rises 7 October 2018 by David Willetts The main message that has united both main party conferences over the last fortnight is that the era of austerity is over. For Labour that means more spending on new things – from universal childcare to a mass programme of nationalisation. And for many Conservatives it means a return to what they love doing best … 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
Social care· Wealth & assets· Welfare· Intergenerational Centre Baby boomers are going to have to pay more tax on their wealth to fund health and social care 5 March 2018 by David Willetts In the past decade a new issue has entered British politics – fairness between the generations. It straddles the conventional political divide. The Prime Minister has spoken of “a growing divide between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation”. And the leader of the Labour Party has argued that future generations should … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre Happy 70th, baby-boomer – but it’s the young who need the gifts 1 January 2017 by David Willetts This is the year the world turns 30. The world has been very young for a long time. The middle person in the global population has been in their twenties since 1950, when reliable records began, but the figure is on a steady upward trend and this year the world’s median age will probably go … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre· Political parties and elections Millennials need more democratic firepower to fight the growing inequalities between generations 23 September 2016 by David Willetts The demographers used to argue that it was bad news to be born into a big generation – there would be more competition for jobs and for houses. You would travel through live economy class not club class. But it has not turned out like that. Instead the big generation, the baby boomers, born from … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Labour market· Social mobility Our education system is tilted against social mobility 12 September 2016 by David Willetts We like to think that a modern society is open and mobile – and our failures on social mobility really matter to Theresa May. It is one of the reasons for successive waves of education reform, the latest of which is being debated in parliament today, sparking a fiery debate about grammar schools not seen for … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre Renewing the intergenerational contract could be as important to future generations as a successful EU exit 18 July 2016 by David Willetts We have become very sensitive to inequities of class or race or gender. But we have been ignoring a growing new problem – unfairness between the generations. When I wrote The Pinch six years ago it was the first book looking at Britain from the point of view of the different generations. Since then it … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre· Political parties and elections Repairing the painful fractures between generations will be a crucial task for the new Prime Minister 3 July 2016 by David Willetts and Torsten Bell There’s a lot to do, and no-one around to do it. That’s the conclusion from Britain’s first week as a country on a course for Brexit. Most debate, and financial market turmoil, is focused on the huge task of redefining Britain’s role in the world. Whether we like it or not, and whether our leaders … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills As a nation we have spectacularly failed to provide clear career routes for non-graduates 11 May 2016 by David Willetts and Alan Milburn In the old days – when we were both young – the route from childhood into work was simple. A Levels followed by university for a small elite and an apprenticeship with a local employer for the rest. Today, the route through university to work is chosen by the majority of young women and 40 … Continued READ MORE
Intergenerational Centre We must live up to our obligation to generations coming after us 9 May 2016 by David Willetts Ask people about what really worries them about the future and one answer stands out above all – that our children and grandchildren will not have the same kind of opportunities in life that we have enjoyed. The wheels of modern capitalism may keep turning so there are new technologies and new medical treatments. But … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre Life is unfair for young people – but there are ways we can fix that 1 March 2016 by David Willetts After seven years, living standards have finally returned to levels last seen before the financial crisis hit in 2008. But the effects of the downturn and the gains from recovery have not been evenly shared. While the gap between rich and poor has fallen slightly, we’ve witnessed the deepening of a new divergence, between young … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre Our country favours the old over the young – and the problem has been getting worse 26 November 2015 by David Willetts Our country favours the old over the young and the problem has been getting worse. George Osborne took some welcome steps yesterday to reverse that trend. The apprenticeship levy, the extension of student loans, and enabling sixth form colleges to escape their unfair VAT burden by converting to academies are important moves in the right … Continued READ MORE
Firms· Productivity & industrial strategy· Economic growth Robots will enrich not replace us 21 November 2015 by David Willetts The robots are coming to take our jobs. So says Martin Ford in The Rise of the Robots, the FT/McKinsey business book of the year. Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, last week warned that 15m jobs in Britain were at risk from automation. Is artificial intelligence about to take over? I am not so sure. Innovation is always … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Intergenerational Centre The social contract between generations in Britain is being broken 25 October 2015 by David Willetts It marks a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of different generations that this week the IFS estimate that the incomes of pensioners – £394 per week – are higher than the incomes of the rest of the population – £385 per week. In many ways, this is a triumph. Nobody wants to see pensioners struggling … Continued READ MORE
Pay· Living Wage We don’t want an economy where everything that is good is compulsory 10 October 2015 by David Willetts It is Living Wage week and Boris Johnson has said he wants employers across London to pay at a rate of £9.40 an hour, while businesses outside the capital are being asked to pay £8.25. That is not to be confused with the National Living Wage announced by George Osborne in the Summer, which will … Continued READ MORE
