Housing A fair deal for tenants and landlords 6 September 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson For a government that emphasises rights and responsibilities, housing seems to have been left out. The government’s largest investment in housing – housing benefit – requires landlords to do nothing for their share of the £20 billion. Regardless of the quality of the home they let or the management they provide, the amount of housing … Continued READ MORE
Childcare· Welfare· Political parties and elections Childcare is a new election battleground, so why do none of the parties get it? 29 August 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson We have lost our way on childcare. No party has set out a vision for where we are trying to get as a country. Parties compete on who can invest more without any sense of an overall plan. The result is a fragmented, increasingly complex system that still expects parents to pay a higher price … Continued READ MORE
Labour market We should reform zero-hours contracts, not ban them 25 March 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson The latest estimate from the Office for National Statistics is that close to 600,000 workers or 2 per cent of the workforce are employed on a zero-hours contract. Health and social care, hospitality and administration account for over 50 per cent of these workers. Zero-hours contracts are intended to offer flexibility to employers and workers. … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Mind the Budget income gap 19 March 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson If the Chancellor is to be believed, this was yet another Budget for ‘hard working families’. But the reality seems more mixed. Let’s start with the positive: yesterday’s childcare announcement. Leave aside that the majority of new spending on childcare is still going to better off families, including those earning up to £300,000, a little … Continued READ MORE
Housing Shared ownership: a role for funders? 7 March 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson Almost a year on from the launch of Help to Buy, millions of Britons are still unable to get on the housing ladder. The ongoing costs of a high loan to value mortgage are too great a stretch on a modest income, however small the deposit. Among the under thirty fives on low to middle … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Careers and carers: would some stay-at-home mums prefer to work? 24 January 2014 by Vidhya Alakeson Camilla is 31. She has two children under five. She currently works five hours a week but she would prefer to work 16 hours. Like her, Rachel also has two children under five. She’s a stay at home mum but she would prefer to work full time. But for both Camilla and Rachel, childcare is … Continued READ MORE
Housing Shared ownership can put a roof over the head of Generation Rent 22 November 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson With house prices out of reach for many, shared ownership could be the next big thing – but only if it makes some serious change The gap between renting and owning with a conventional mortgage, even a high loan-to-value mortgage, has become unbridgeable for low and modest income families in some parts of the country, … Continued READ MORE
Housing How to revive build to rent 18 October 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson The private rented sector is fast becoming the only housing option for low to middle income families. Even with Help to Buy, home ownership is too great a stretch for many, especially in expensive areas and they are very unlikely to get access to affordable housing. The UK’s private rented sector though remains characterised by … Continued READ MORE
Housing Building homes for ‘generation rent’ 14 October 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson The private rented sector is fast becoming the only housing option for low-to-middle-income families. Even with Help to Buy, home-ownership is too great a stretch for many, especially in expensive areas, and they are very unlikely to get access to affordable housing. We need to increase the supply of market rented homes as well as … Continued READ MORE
Welfare After Labour’s offer, the political battle on childcare has heated up 27 September 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson Earlier this week, Labour retook the initiative on childcare with the announcement of a major extension in free care for three-and-four-year-olds. Having been the party that established childcare as a new frontier of the welfare state when in government, Labour’s lack of a clear policy direction over the last year had left room for the … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Are zero hours contracts here to stay? 5 August 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson It is not surprising that at the end of the longest economic downturn the UK has ever faced to see an increase in the number of people on zero hours contracts. In uncertain times, employers have turned to these contracts to weather a difficult economic climate. By not guaranteeing employees a set number of hours … Continued READ MORE
Housing Some home truths 22 July 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson In Britain today, a couple earning £22,000 with one child looking to buy a home are priced out of almost 40 per cent of local authorities. How did we end up here? And where in Britain can low-income working families afford to live? According to our report Home Truths–published last week, a third of the country’s … Continued READ MORE
Housing The housing crisis is pricing workers out of ever more of Britain 16 July 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson The fact that many ordinary working families are priced out of central London boroughs such as Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Islington will surprise no one. But a new report by the Resolution Foundation shows that there are now affordability black spots across all parts of the country where low and middle income families would have to … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Doing the zero sums 2 July 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson and Matthew Pennycook Pressure on public sector budgets has led to a rise in zero-hours contracts, particularly in the care sector. The biggest losers are vulnerable service-users and staff on poor pay and insecure hours. It all adds up to the next big care scandal Over the past year, the government has repeatedly raised concerns about the quality … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Zero-hours contracts must be a two-way street 25 June 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson Official estimates suggest that the number of people employed on a zero-hours contract – which provides no guaranteed hours of work – has risen from 134,000 in 2006, to 208,000 in the last quarter of 2012, and that 8% of workplaces in England and Wales now use zero-hours contracts. These figures are sure to be an underestimate. … Continued READ MORE
Housing Build to rent: the obstacles for housing providers 24 June 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson When delegates gather in Manchester tomorrow for the start of the Chartered Institute of Housing‘s annual conference, there will no doubt be talk of build to rent, the government fund to stimulate new private rented housing supply and attract institutional investors. Registered providers are looking for new ways of attracting capital into housing and build to … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances SR2013: we ain’t seen nothing yet 21 June 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson When the chancellor stands up next week to deliver his one year Spending Review, it will beg a lot of questions about future expenditure cuts With a week to go before the Spending Review is announced, reports indicate that the government is making progress towards the £11.5 billion in departmental spending cuts that it needs … Continued READ MORE
Labour market To the Point – Protecting our workers 3 June 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on the Nursery World blog Last week, the Department for Education released analysis suggesting that relaxing ratios would reduce the cost of childcare for parents by 28 per cent. In my column last month, I suggested that the Government must effectively be spending the same money twice if it was saying it … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Budget 2013: the new childcare support excludes families who most need help 20 March 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson In a time of austerity, why is extra money being directed towards families earning £300,000, and not those on universal credit? The centrepiece of the budget will be a new system of tax-free childcare vouchers (deliberately misnamed tax relief by the government) for middle- and higher-income families. Of the nearly £1bn earmarked for childcare, £750m is going … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Childcare tax breaks risk helping the rich the most 8 January 2013 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Staggers blog At present, there are almost no voucher recipients among the poorest 40 per cent of households. In the week that parents earning over £50,000 saw their child benefit cut, the speculation is that the government intends to introduce tax relief for childcare, possibly making those who were worse off from … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Working Families Risk Being Shut Out By Montague Row 23 August 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Spectator Today’s publication of the Montague Review into institutional investment in build to let addresses an important gap in our housing market. Large numbers of people, and a growing number of families, who would have bought homes in the past are now shut out of ownership for the medium to … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Can Deregulation Fix Britain’s Childcare Challenge 23 May 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This blog originally appeared on the Huffington PostAt the start of this week Conservative MP, Elizabeth Truss, published her proposals for reducing the high costs of childcare in Britain. At the heart of her proposals is a drive to reduce regulation on the childcare industry. Truss has two main ideas: a relaxation of ratios so that a single … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Budget 2012: George Osborne is hitting families even harder 20 March 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Guardian website Although the chancellor will only step up to the despatch box to present his budget later today, we already know about the changes that will have the greatest impact on Britain’s working families. That is because governments are in the habit of announcing changes years in advance, ensuring families … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The price of motherhood 15 March 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson For the first time last year, the hourly gap in pay between full-time working men and women fell to 10 percent. While that’s not good enough and is still higher than in much of the rest of Europe, it is a sign of enormous progress in reducing work place inequality. In 1997, the hourly full-time … Continued READ MORE
Welfare What can the chancellor do to address the high costs of childcare? 28 February 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This piece first appeared on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site. Laura works 25 hours a week as an accounts administrator. After paying for childcare, she takes home only half of what she earns. This is an all too familiar picture for working families in Britain and, according to Monday’s report by theDaycare Trust, things … Continued READ MORE
