Youth home ownership rates have risen since the mid-2010s trough to leave younger millennials with greater home ownership rates at age 25 than older millennials had at that age. But with middle- and higher-income households gaining the most in recent years, the property divide between rich and poor young people is widening, according to new … Continued

CPI inflation increased to 2.6 per cent in November – higher than the Bank of England had expected – highlighting the challenge Britain faces in getting inflation back down to its target. The rise was driven by petrol prices, which fell by less over the past year in November than they did in October and … Continued

The UK’s jobs market continues to cool amidst a wider economic slowdown, but pay growth remains resilient, the Resolution Foundation said today. The Foundation’s analysis using the latest HMRC admin data suggest that the 16+ employment rate has fallen to 61.1 per cent, down from 61.7 per cent in early 2023. Further evidence of a … Continued

Tweaking the affordability criteria in the Government’s housing targets should help deliver more homes in areas with the most economic potential, as well as in areas with acute affordability challenges, since they are now more focused on the most productive travel to work areas, the Resolution Foundation said today (Thursday) of the Government’s response to … Continued

The employment gap between people living in the poorest and richest families in Britain has fallen by a third since the late 1990s. But workers in poorer households remain less likely to be satisfied with their job, and more likely to have an insecure employment contract, according to new research published today (Thursday) by the … Continued

The Chancellor will need to confront the good (allocating £100 billion of capital spending), the bad (finding £8 billion of further cuts to already stretched public services) and the ugly (a possible downgrade to the economic outlook that would require fresh tax rises, spending cuts or breaking the fiscal rules) in her upcoming Spending Review, … Continued

The Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper has a welcome focus on leveraging Britain’s economic strengths – as an exporter of services, a European leader for defence, and a strong university-led research base – and identifies a sensible set of clusters and growth industries. But to focus on these, the strategy will need to pass over … Continued

More than one in four children (27 per cent – 1.1 million in total) in poverty would not have been living below the poverty line in recent years (2022-23) were it not for high housing costs – a sign the Government must prioritise tackling housing unaffordability in its upcoming Child Poverty Strategy, says new Resolution … Continued

The Government’s new targets of raising Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) and GDP per person over the Parliament at both a national and regional level is a welcome move that should focus minds across Whitehall about the need to raise household living standards. However, with the national RHDI milestone having been hit in every parliament … Continued

Agricultural Relief for Inheritance Tax (IHT) is estimated to cost the Exchequer £700 million this year (2024-25), delivering savings of more than £300,000 each to the approximately 1,700 estates who claim it (based on the latest available data in 2021-22), and demonstrating why the Government is right to scale it back, the Resolution Foundation said … Continued

Wealth gaps between young and older households widened in the decade running up to the pandemic, but rising interest rates have put this into reverse – with the average wealth gap between households in their 30s and 60s falling by £86,000 over the past five years, according to new Resolution Foundation research published today (Thursday). … Continued

Today’s ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper should nudge Britain closer to the Government’s stretching 80 per cent employment target. But to really make a difference, the Government will need to properly resource its ‘youth guarantee’ and get benefit reforms right – a challenge that has been left for another day. The Foundation says setting Britain … Continued

Increasing transfers between generations – from housing young adults to financial gifts and inheritances, and caring for children, adults and elderly relatives – are having a profound, but unequally felt, impact on people’s economic prospects, according to new research from the Resolution Foundation and CPC-Connecting Generations published today (Thursday). The Intergenerational Audit 2024 – part … Continued

CPI inflation increased by 2.3 per cent in October – a bigger increase than either the Bank of England or markets expected – with increases in core and services inflation completing a triple dose of bad news for families and policy makers, the Resolution Foundation said today (Wednesday). While a rise in inflation was always … Continued

ONS labour market statistics have misrepresented recent trends in the UK labour market – by under-estimating the growth in employment by 930,000 workers since 2019, and over-estimating the extent of economic inactivity, according to new Resolution Foundation research published today (Wednesday). As the new Government prepares to publish a White Paper that reaffirms its ambition … Continued

Today (Tuesday) the Resolution Foundation has announced that Ruth Curtice has been appointed as its new Chief Executive and will start on January 20th 2025. Ruth is currently Director of fiscal policy at HM Treasury (HMT) where she has worked for over 15 years. Her career has focused on domestic economic policy including labour markets, … Continued

GDP growth slowed to 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, leaving the UK falling below the US in terms of growth across G7 economies, the Resolution Foundation said today (Friday) in response to the latest ONS data. Following a recession in the second half of 2023, the UK economy bounced back in … Continued

50 is the new 20 for the 13 million families that make up an older, modern-day low-to-middle income Britain, who are also more likely to suffer from poor health or a disability compared to three decades ago. But despite these headwinds, which have come to the fore since the pandemic, lower-income families are far more … Continued

Britain’s three-year period of high vacancies has ended, with vacancy rates now back to pre-pandemic levels in both the private and public sectors, while pay rises continue to slow as a result, the Resolution Foundation said today (Tuesday) in response to the latest labour market statistics. The latest data shows vacancy levels falling again, as … Continued

Spending on childcare has increased by 41 per cent over the past decade, boosting support for working parents. But major gaps in support mean that parents in education are missing out, with a parent studying in Further Education (FE) in England receiving no guaranteed support, according to new research published today (Saturday) by the Resolution … Continued

The first Labour Budget in nearly 15 years marked a decisive shift from the planned cuts set out by the last Government, with better-funded public services and greater public investment coming from higher taxes and more borrowing. But the Budget has not yet delivered a decisive shift away from Britain’s record as a ‘stagnation nation’, … Continued

The Chancellor has set out plans to boost real-terms spending on public services and investment (TDEL) by £326 billion (in current prices) across the next five years, funded in part by the biggest package of tax rises on record, the Resolution Foundation said today (Wednesday) in its quickfire analysis of the Budget. In the first … Continued

Commenting on reports that the Chancellor is set to announce that the headline rate of the National Living Wage will rise by 6.6 per cent to £12.20 an hour next April, Nye Cominetti, Principal Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Millions of low earners are set for good news in the Budget when the Chancellor … Continued

Central government spending is already £11.5 billion above the OBR’s March forecast, six months into the fiscal year, highlighting the scale of the public finances challenge facing the Chancellor ahead of her first Budget next week, the Resolution Foundation said today (Tuesday). The vast majority (£9.7 billion) of central government overspending in the current financial … Continued

Decarbonising Britain’s transport will be challenging as it accounts for over a third of all UK emissions. But doing so effectively could save households £22 billion (£650 per household on average, in current prices) in 2035, according to new analysis from the Resolution Foundation published today (Thursday). The report Getting the green light, funded by … Continued