Housing We need cash for social housing – but honesty and answers too 8 April 2019 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation Housing has returned to British politics. Falls in home ownership have driven it there, but in so doing opened up a much needed debate about a long neglected issue: renting. Too often in recent decades the background assumption of housing policy has been that social renting is a declining tenure, and private renting a temporary … Continued READ MORE
Tax New year, new era: tax and spend in 21st Century Britain 3 April 2019 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation Eras of Britain’s political economy come and go. They ebb and flow, driven by political and economic cycles. Sometimes shifts are hard to see at the time, particularly when they are obscured by the political fog of war. Or Brexit, as it’s currently known. But noticed or not, the financial year starting this Saturday will mark the … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Universal Credit: the honesty we owe and the changes we need 12 October 2018 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation All is not well in the land of Universal Credit (UC). Cabinet ministers are angsting in private about the challenges of rolling out this government’s single biggest domestic policy reform. Two ex-Prime Ministers are worrying in public that the benefit risks becoming a new poll tax. And Labour has (rhetorically at least) promised to scrap … Continued READ MORE
Public spending· Economy and public finances The end of austerity? Not so much 3 October 2018 by Torsten Bell and Resolution Foundation The Prime Minister made a big bold statement today. No, not that she likes to dance to Abba (who doesn’t) but that she was “ending austerity”. Announcing the end of austerity is sensible politics. After all who, apart from a few fringe think-tanks, says they want more austerity in of itself? There are also signs … Continued READ MORE
Labour Party Conference special: Fully automated luxury communism Top of the Charts 21 September 2018 Afternoon all, I have the absolute pleasure of spending large parts of this weekend and the next fortnight up in Liverpool and Birmingham for the main party conferences – and don’t think I’m just going to suffer alone. Oh no, when it comes to the state of British politics we are all in this together. … Continued READ MORE
