Generations· Demographics Wanted: two children People still want kids, so why is the number of births at a 150-year low? RF's Charlie McCurdy on the material constraints that lie behind the recent British baby bust. 2 April 2026 by Charlie McCurdy This post was originally published on our Substack. Back when my mum was my age – I’m in my early-30s – she had three kids. I don’t have any yet, and lots of my friends are in the same boat. I hope you (and my family) don’t mind this personal insight. I say this only … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Generations Flat pay, little wealth and a shrinking safety net. Whatever happened to the millennials? What does the Intergenerational Audit say about UK Millennials 13 November 2023 by Molly Broome Recently, there’s been good news for millennials from across the pond where the latest data suggests their living standards are catching up with (and on some measures surpassing) previous generations. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for British millennials. It’s now been five years since the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission first laid out the state … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Generations Britain’s inheritance boom could further decouple people’s retirement age from their state pension age It’s inheritance and where you live which are the barriers to retirement 31 January 2023 by Molly Broome The UK’s state pension age is going up – and perhaps faster than expected. The age at which you can draw the state pension is due to rise from 66 to 67 by 2028. And the Government is now reportedly considering bringing forward the rise to 68 from 2046 to the 2030s, as part of … Continued READ MORE
Generations 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
Generations 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
Generations 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
Generations· Covid-19 Three reasons to be concerned about job losses among older workers A U-Shaped crisis 29 April 2021 by Nye Cominetti Young people have been at the epicentre of the Covid-19 crisis. The severe restrictions and lockdown closures of social sectors of the economy – such as hospitality, retail, arts and leisure, where young workers are concentrated – has led millions of our youngest workers to be put on furlough or, worse still, lose their jobs. … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Prices & consumption· Generations· Covid-19 The current consumption crisis will be important for the future jobs market recovery 16 October 2020 by Maja Gustafsson Britain’s jobs crisis is concentrated in low-paying sectors like hospitality, retail, arts and leisure that have been hardest hit by lockdown and ongoing social distancing measures. In 2019, 32 per cent of 18-29-year-old employees worked in these sectors. But those who tend to spend the greatest proportion of their disposable income on these more pleasurable … Continued READ MORE
Generations· Covid-19 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
Generations What is generational fairness? David Runciman speech on intergenerational fairness and political representation 21 October 2019 by Professor David Runciman This article summarises a speech by Professor David Runciman at a recent Intergenerational Centre event exploring what the concept of generational fairness means for our politics, economics and society. You can watch the full event on our event page. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the Resolution Foundation. In the coming months … Continued READ MORE
Work· Generations It’s getting better all the time? 5 July 2019 by Stephen Clarke In 1957 the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the country that it had “never had it so good”. Since then more than six decades have elapsed, and each successive generation has debated whether this applies to them. Such debates continue to rage. Some commentators have argued that today’s young people are more fortunate than previous … Continued READ MORE
Generations 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
Prices & consumption· Incomes· Generations Life as a millennial is far less extravagant than you might think 20 June 2019 by Laura Gardiner When economists and policy makers talk about living standards they think in terms of real (equivalised) household disposable incomes (before or after housing costs). This is a good approach to take, but it’s not how most people think. A more common way is to think about how much money you have to spend on goods … Continued READ MORE
Work· Housing· Generations Britain has become a less mobile nation – why? 6 June 2019 by Torsten Bell Donald Trump tells us there are no protesters. He says it so often, he probably believes it. Which is worrying, but also fairly normal. There are stories we hear so often that we simply assume they are true. Here’s one. Our communities are changing ever faster as more and more people move around for work, … Continued READ MORE
Work· Housing· Generations Young people are no longer footloose and fancy free – and rent rises are to blame 6 June 2019 by Lindsay Judge Millennials, eh? They never stand still. Always on the move, with their ‘portfolio careers’, side hustles in the gig economy, and no loyalty to the companies they work for. With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder they struggle to find decent work and pay. There’s only one problem with this common trope though. It’s … Continued READ MORE
Work· Generations 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
Work· Generations Coming of age during a downturn can cause scarring – and it takes up to a decade to heal 13 May 2019 by Stephen Clarke Recessions are bad for people’s standard of living. And they’re particularly bad for young people. That’s the painful lesson we learnt after the 1980s recession where, for most of that decade, at least one in seven people under 30 were unemployed. We know a lot about the unemployment scarring of the 1980s – from the … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Generations 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
Generations· Demographics· Political parties and elections My Generation, Baby: The Politics of Age in Brexit Britain 29 March 2019 by Laura Gardiner and Torsten Bell Generational politics is nothing new, but the extent of the profound generational cleavage that has emerged in British electoral politics is novel. The Brexit vote and the 2017 general election put generational politics centre‐stage, eclipsing in some ways the traditionally dominant role of class. Our two main parties now rely on age‐based coalitions of support—on … Continued READ MORE
Housing· Wealth & assets· Generations The Bank of Mum and Dad pays out at least three times in life 4 December 2018 by Torsten Bell Times change, Britain changes, and it doesn’t stop changing just because we’re all naturally obsessed by Brexit. Our need to understand and respond to those changes is as big as ever – and nowhere is that more true than in the growing importance in our society of wealth, which has risen from three times our … Continued READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Work· Housing· Generations All aboard the Millennial Express – longer commutes for less pay 8 November 2018 by Nye Cominetti The ONS serve to uplift and depress analysts like me in equal measure. And today they served up the latter, with new figures showing that the number of people commuting for more than an hour to get into work has increased by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2011. Longer commutes are good news … Continued READ MORE
Public finances· Tax· Generations· 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
Generations· Demographics· Political parties and elections Demography is the new class war 21 September 2018 by Torsten Bell The real question about this year’s Labour Party conference is what on earth everyone will talk about for four days. The supposed Brexit barney will be a damp squib and leadership rows have disappeared. So here’s a suggestion to fill the awkward silences: it’s time Labour talked about the arrival of generational divides in our … Continued READ MORE
Work· Generations Welcome to adulthood, millennial 13 September 2018 by Laura Gardiner 2018 is the year in which the babies of the millennium reach adulthood. Back in January, this was mainly marked by existential online angst about how those born when Britney Spears’s ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’ was in the charts are reaching legal drinking age. Today’s 18 in 2018 publication from the Office for National … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Generations We need to lift the burden of risk that we are loading onto young people 8 May 2018 by Laura Gardiner A key question for any politician is to ask is what it feels like to grow up in Britain today. The mood and outlook of young adults is a bellwether for the new frontiers of culture, the growth prospects of the economy and the tenor of politics. So, what is the mood among young adults … Continued READ MORE
