In 2012, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels were linked to the 30th percentile of local rents and automatically revised to reflect market changes. However, since the systematic link with market rents was broken 13 years ago, the Government has frozen LHA rates eight times, and repegged to the market level just twice (in 2020 and … Continued The post The Resolution Foundation Housing Outlook Q4 2025 appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
September’s inflation data shows that the annual rate of CPI inflation was 3.8 per cent, the same rate it was in August 2025, but more than twice its September 2024 level. This grim news of inflation remaining high came with something of a silver lining as September inflation is usually used to uprate most benefits … Continued The post Catching up? appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
This report sets out the method through which the Living Wage rates – a voluntary hourly pay rate that is based on what families need to get by – in London and the rest of the UK are calculated by the Resolution Foundation, and overseen by the Living Wage Commission on behalf of the Living Wage Foundation. These … Continued The post Calculating the Real Living Wage for London and the rest of the UK: 2025 appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
Nearly one million young people are now NEET (not in education, employment or training). Tackling this crisis requires stronger enforcement of participation requirements for 16-17-year-olds and an expanded Youth Guarantee offering all 18-24-year-olds real pathways into work or study. The post False starts appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
This note looks at the factors behind stubbornly high energy bills and how ministers could act to ease pressure on households. It considers how change can be enacted to work for vulnerable families and promote the net zero transition, while remaining fiscally sustainable. The post Splitting the bill appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
The Budget in November is likely to reveal a significant deterioration in the outlook for the public finances, requiring the Government to raise taxes in response. A key reason for this is what the Office for Budget Responsibility will assume about how fast the economy can sustainably grow. It has been eight years since this … Continued| Resolution Foundation
This report is the fourth in our series of ‘audits’ of households’ wealth, offering the most comprehensive assessment of wealth inequality in Britain. It comes against a backdrop of an unprecedented mix of economic shocks and policy interventions during the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath which have had profound effects on family finances. This report … Continued The post Before the fall appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
Welcome to our third Housing Outlook of 2025. [1] This quarter, we show that delivering 1.5 million new homes by the end of Parliament would be a real step-change in housebuilding in England, but not game-changing when it comes to rebalancing housing supply and demand. Since 2022, housing stock relative to population has been on … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Ahead of the Budget, this report considers the options for the Government to respond decisively to a deterioration in the public finances while also making the tax system fairer and more efficient. The post Call of duties appeared first on Resolution Foundation.| Publications • Resolution Foundation
In this anniversary review, we look back at how living standards have evolved since the Foundation was set up, indulge in a little nostalgia regarding the first two decades of our own institutional life, and – more importantly – consider what the opportunities and challenges facing the UK mean for our future work. As we … Continued| Resolution Foundation
UK Government borrowing costs have once again been in the headlines. Recent moves have, however, been overblown: since benchmark 10-year yields peaked at post-financial-crisis highs of 4.9 per cent in January, they have fallen back. [1] And while it’s true that 30-year yields have reached their highest level since 1998, such long horizons are less … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Abolishing the two-child limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty; if it is not scrapped, we project that 4.8 million children (34 per cent) will be in poverty by 2029-30, including half of all children in large families. [1] There has been speculation in recent weeks that the Government is considering … Continued| Resolution Foundation
This briefing note analyses the choices the Government has made in the context of an awkward backdrop to the 2025 Spring Statement.| Resolution Foundation
Yesterday’s Green Paper marks a serious attempt by the Government to tackle two major concerns: the growing spend on disability benefits, and the large number of people who are not working through ill-health. [1] The proposals to tackle the former go much further than reforms suggested by the previous Government; between 800,000 and 1.2 million … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Ahead of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy, which promises to bring about “an enduring reduction in child poverty”, this report looks at what might be needed to achieve this welcome goal in the face of significant headwinds.| Resolution Foundation
Britain, today, is a more plural country than ever before. But although recent polling has showed that the country has become more accepting over time, there is still ample evidence that significant ethnic inequalities exist. This note explores an ethnic inequality that has been largely under-researched to date: housing affordability.| Resolution Foundation
It has been a bleak winter for the Government’s hopes that the economy might turn a corner. Markets have been volatile, with the cost of government borrowing rising to its highest level since July 2008 with the pound falling sharply. And there are signs that growth has hit a brick wall, with GDP flat in … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Today’s release of long-awaited data from the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) allows us to finally shed more light on family finances during the Covid-19 pandemic. It shows that total household wealth continued to grow faster than the size of the economy – a trend dating back to the mid-1980s. Total household wealth reached a … Continued| Resolution Foundation
The Government is committed to releasing a child poverty strategy later this year. As part of this, Ministers will want to consider how best parental employment can help boost family incomes. But the mid-2020s present a different landscape for child poverty and parental employment from when the last Labour Government crafted its child poverty strategy. … Continued| Resolution Foundation
In this Labour Market Outlook, we examine how the Government should approach extending Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to the lowest earners, and in particular what replacement rate – the proportion of their earnings that workers will get while off sick – to set for those workers who will be newly eligible. There is a clear … Continued| Resolution Foundation
This report describes the labour market experiences of low-to-middle income families and how these have changed over the past quarter century. It explores those families’ employment, pay, experiences at work, and their feelings about changing jobs and progressing in work.| Resolution Foundation
England’s childcare system has often been subject to criticism, but government funding has been increased in recent years, especially for parents who work[1]. At the same time, there has been no such increase in support for parents that wish to boost their living standards longer term by undertaking education or training. The childcare system in … Continued| Resolution Foundation
The announcement that Winter Fuel Payments are to be restricted to recipients of Pension Credit or similar means-tested benefits has sparked controversy[1]. The Government and its defenders point to the lack of sense, in these straitened times, of making fuel payments to all pensioners when the majority do not need them. Opponents, however, highlight the … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, significant issues have emerged with the UK’s official labour market data. The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) main data source on the labour market, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), estimates that there are over a million fewer workers than the trends seen in other data sources suggest. And … Continued| Resolution Foundation
Welcome to this quarter’s Housing Outlook, where we investigate changes in the number and distribution of bedrooms in England over time, evolving norms around the number of bedrooms households require, and the policy challenges in this space. [i] Our findings reveal that, over the past 30 years, the number of households in England reporting … Continued| Resolution Foundation
British household wealth has been on a rollercoaster ride in recent years. In Q1 2024, it was estimated to be worth more than six times GDP (630 per cent), more than 50 per cent higher than the last time Labour came into power (410 per cent in 1997). The key driver of this huge rise … Continued| Resolution Foundation
The record on the labour market since 2010 is mixed – strong employment growth (albeit a partial reversal post-pandemic), alongside a 14-year real wage stagnation. On their plans for the future, the Conservative party would stick with the status quo, while Labour propose the biggest overhaul of labour market policy in a generation, including a higher minimum wage and a ‘day one’ right to protection from unfair dismissal.| Resolution Foundation
2024 is going to be messy, for our living standards not just politics. The past two years have been dominated by rising energy and food bills, with everyone affected. It will be very different in 2024. Inflation falling back faster than expected means many will benefit from rising real wages. But politicians tempted to claim … Continued| Resolution Foundation
