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 is the time to as…

A toxic combination of 15 years of low growth, and four decades of high inequality, has left Britain poorer and falling behind its peers. Productivity growth is weak and public investment is low, while wages today are no higher than they were before the financial crisis. Britain needs a new economic strategy to lift itself out of stagnation. This n…

A toxic combination of 15 years of low growth, and four decades of high inequality, has left Britain poorer and falling behind its peers. Productivity growth is weak and public investment is low, while wages today are no higher than they were before the financial crisis. Britain needs a new economic strategy to lift itself out of stagnation. This n…

1999 saw the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd all meet in their full form for the first time. This marked the most significant act of devolution of the 20th Century, and it has changed the United Kingdom significantly over the past quarter of a century. The process of devolution has continued to evolve, with the ext…

1999 saw the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd all meet in their full form for the first time. This marked the most significant act of devolution of the 20th Century, and it has changed the United Kingdom significantly over the past quarter of a century. The process of devolution has continued to evolve, with the ext…

1999 saw the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd all meet in their full form for the first time. This marked the most significant act of devolution of the 20th Century, and it has changed the United Kingdom significantly over the past quarter of a century. The process of devolution has continued to evolve, with the ext…

1999 saw the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd all meet in their full form for the first time. This marked the most significant act of devolution of the 20th Century, and it has changed the United Kingdom significantly over the past quarter of a century. The process of devolution has continued to evolve, with the ext…

Over one-in-ten workers across Britain is employed on some form of precarious contract. The problems with such working arrangements for some workers are well known: they have limited control over their working patterns and insecure incomes too. But why firms use, or even come to rely on them, is rarely discussed and poorly understand. We need a far…

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 up in investment – we must raise wind t…

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 long years si…

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, and yet the driv…

The introduction of the minimum wage back in April 1999 was a controversial policy choice, with businesses warning that it would lead to widespread job losses. But 25 years on, it has proved to be a great policy success that has been built on by several governments. Raising the legal wage floor has significantly reduced low pay and inequality, with…

A toxic combination of 15 years of low growth, and four decades of high inequality, has left Britain poorer and falling behind its peers. Wages today are no higher than they were before the financial crisis, and England’s biggest cities beyond London all have productivity levels below the national average. Britain needs a new economic strategy to l…

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 need to take a br…

The upcoming Spring Budget may be the last big fiscal event before the General Election, one of few chances for the government to set the terms of the economic debate. And with the government trailing heavily in the polls, and the economy entering a mild recession at the end of last year, the pressure is on to make it a game-changing Budget economi…

A toxic combination of 15 years of low growth, and four decades of high inequality, has left Britain poorer and falling behind its peers. Productivity growth is weak and public investment is low, while wages today are no higher than they were before the financial crisis. Britain needs a new economic strategy to lift itself out of stagnation. Nottin…

The rising prevalence of mental health problems among young people over recent decades is becoming increasingly concerning. While evidently distressing for the young people and their families, periods of poor mental health can also have significant detrimental impacts on their education and job prospects. Increasing support provided in schools and …

An election is coming, and therefore so are tax cuts in the Budget on 6th March. But the size of those tax cuts are dependent on the amount of fiscal room for manoeuvre the Chancellor has. And their shape will reflect where his political and economic priorities lie. Plus tax cuts come in a context of tax rises already announced, and spending cuts p…

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 to trade, from its day to day flows to occasio…

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 up this kind of saving…

In recent decades age has replaced class as one of the key determinants of a voter’s values and voting behaviour. But these trends never sit still, especially as issues – from Europe to the environment, and the economy – rise and fall in terms of their electoral salience. We know that the next election will be very different to the last election. B…

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, and housing costs, are rising…

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 mortgages. But there is a g…

The goal of a new economic strategy is not a somewhat richer, somewhat fairer, version of the UK’s stagnant status quo, but a more enduring shift in direction; economic change will have to be embraced and steered. And yet despite popular claims that change is speeding up, it is slowing down; the reallocation of labour between sectors is at its lowe…

Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer MP, in conversation with Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, at the final report conference for 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 midd…

For poorer and middle-income families today, it is not just low growth but also the skewed way in which it is shared, that produces stagnation. Indeed, low growth and high inequality means typical households in Britain are 9 per cent poorer than their French counterparts, while our low-income families are 27 per cent poorer. Panel discussion on 'Ge…

The UK has many strengths, from world-class universities and creative industries to high employment. But having grown more quickly than most advanced economies from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, the UK has been in relative decline ever since: the average productivity gap with France, Germany and the US doubled, to 18 per cent, between 2008 and 2022. …

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, in conversation with Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, at the final report conference for 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 mi…

Presentation by Resolution Foundation Chief Executive, Torsten Bell, at the final report conference for 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 …

This panel discussed the role of social innovation and investment in bringing about good work in the UK, and the role of foundations and action-oriented researchers to turn this agenda into reality. Chair – Gavin Kelly, Chair of the Resolution Foundation Danyal Sattar, CEO of Big Issue Invest Anna Thomas, Director of the Institute for the Future of…

This panel discussed the current status of the labour market enforcement landscape, how technology can be used to enhance worker power for low-paid or precarious workers, and how unions can make the most of technology opportunities. Chair – Klara Skrivankova, Director of Programmes at Trust for London Hannah Slaughter, Senior Economist at Resolutio…

This panel discussed the current landscape for training and skills, how tech can be used to ensure workers in low-paying jobs can access upskilling and reskilling, and the biggest barriers to workers using tech for training. Chair – Danielle Walker-Palmour, Director of Friends Provident Foundation Helen Gironi, Director of Ventures at Ufi Ventures …

This panel focused on the opportunities and threats of using tech in the world of low-paid work, in particular for working conditions and training, and the role that social and impact investors can play in supporting WorkerTech. Chair – Sarah O’Connor, Columnist at the Financial Times Sherry Coutu, Chair of WorkFinder Stephen Muers, CEO of Big Soci…

The economy is set to be a defining feature of the run in to next General Election. Inflation is falling, but so too is consumer confidence. Tax revenues are going up, but NHS waiting lists aren’t coming down. In the Autumn Statement the Chancellor will be navigating these short-term challenges, but also addressing longer-term questions about Brita…

Low productivity is the foundational cause of Britain’s recent economic malaise, and raising it is a top priority for policy makers. Public and private investment in research and development is a key route to boosting productivity and future economic growth. But businesses often complain that policy makers are failing to create an environment that …

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 f…

Devolution is essential to both tackle economic inequality across England and drive national economic growth. Significant change has already occurred, with metro mayors and combined authorities taking control over significant areas from transport to housing in areas covering large swathes of the country. But we have not seen fiscal devolution, as r…

The Chancellor has two just two more fiscal events in which to prepare the economic pitch for the upcoming General Election. The backdrop is a challenging and uncertain economic environment, alongside huge pressure on both public services and finances. With the Prime Minister making a virtue of the need to take tough decisions, the Chancellor will …

Britain faces a simply huge infrastructure challenge. As well as decarbonising our homes, we need to modernise our water, energy and transport networks, replacing basic infrastructure that often dates back to the Victorian era. Achieving this is likely to require major investment, regulatory reform and new institutions to drive forward change, as w…

Britain urgently needs to boost its economic growth. But while there are many routes to doing so, most ultimately come down to people boosting national prosperity – and to do this they need the right skills for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. But Britain’s record on skills is chequered – its often world leading universities are pol…

Britain’s macroeconomic policy that the Treasury and Bank of England have got used to is crisis management – from a financial crash to a global pandemic and a huge inflation spike. Both have adopted new approaches to supporting the economy, going far beyond textbook cuts to interest rates. Today the legacy is higher levels of debt, amid huge uncert…

The last few years have not been easy times for any advanced economies. The UK, US, and Eurozone have all buffeted by major economic shocks, most recently by the most significant inflation surge in four decades. But while there are many common themes – huge inflation pressures, rising interest rates, tight labour markets and weak GDP growth – the d…

Advanced economies across the world have been buffeted by acute shocks crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine, at the same time as they are grappling with longer-term challenges like deindustrialisation, the rise of AI and globalisation. Labour markets across a range of countries have experienced persistent wage stagnation, the rise o…

Change is accelerating, or so we are told. But while the world is changing, it’s far less clear that Britain’s economy is. In fact we’re seeing less industrial change, as some sectors grow and others shrink, than has been the case for decades. Fewer workers are moving jobs. This matters because, while many of us are ambivalent about change, such ec…

Losing your job in Britain can be a very expensive business. Low and flat rate benefits leave many workers facing huge income falls if they face a period out of work. This gives them a strong incentive to take a new job quickly – but not necessarily the best fit for their talents. And it discourages people from taking the risk of moving to a new jo…

Greater Manchester has long been centre-stage in visions of a more geographically equal country – from the Northern Powerhouse to levelling up. But the rhetoric has outpaced the reality: productivity and wages across the city region remain 10 and 4 per cent below the national average. What it would take for Greater Manchester to become a much riche…

The West Midlands has played a pivotal role in British history as a manufacturing hub, driving innovation and economic growth which led to dramatic improvements in people’s living standards. But its city region has struggled to maintain this role over recent decades, and productivity is now 11 per cent below the national average. Both Britain as a …

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 economi…

There is overwhelming evidence that Britain’s social contract is under strain. Young people today aren’t enjoying big generational living standards improvements, and are struggling to match lifecycle milestones that previous cohorts enjoyed, like a secure job and a home that they own. These problems are widely recognised – but that doesn’t mean tha…

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 significant uncertainty about how far unemplo…