The OBR: 15 years on Resolution Foundation response to the Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry 19 February 2026 by Ruth Curtice and James Smith and Imogen Stone In December 2025, the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) launched an inquiry into the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to assess the organisation’s performance over the past 15 years, and to input on possible reforms to the OBR’s role, remit, and how it works with the Treasury. In this spotlight, we set out our response to … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Public spending· Economy and public finances Stairway to headroom Putting the Autumn Budget 2025 decisions on tax, spending and borrowing into context 27 November 2025 by Hannah Aldridge and Mike Brewer and Elliott Christensen and Tom Clark and Alex Clegg and Nye Cominetti and Adam Corlett and Ruth Curtice and Julia Diniz and Sophie Hale and Lindsay Judge and Zachary Leather and Jonathan Marshall and Charlie McCurdy and Louise Murphy and Simon Pittaway and Hannah Slaughter and James Smith and Imogen Stone and Greg Thwaites and Lalitha Try The Chancellor’s second tax-rising budget arrived under dark clouds, but forecasts came in better than feared. But even though she was saved from the worst predictions of past weeks, the Chancellor still faced a tough task to clear three big hurdles – fixing the public finances, easing the cost of living squeeze on families, and taxing smartly and fairly. This briefing note argues that she did clear these hurdles, albeit not flawlessly. She scraped over … Continued READ MORE
Housing Housing Outlook Q3 2025 27 September 2025 by Camron Aref-Adib and Imogen Stone 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 READ MORE
Unsung Britain· Welfare Don’t forget about us How disabilities and caring responsibilities affect low-to-middle income Britain 17 July 2025 by Hannah Slaughter and Imogen Stone This briefing note combines quantitative data with insights from focus groups to explore how disabilities and caring responsibilities affect these families’ lives and living standards. READ MORE
Labour market· Migration Precarious prospects Understanding precarious work among foreign-born workers 14 April 2025 by Hannah Slaughter and Imogen Stone This briefing note examines the experiences of precarious work among foreign-born workers, how poor enforcement of rules can drag down standards for UK-born workers too, and what policy can do to respond. READ MORE
Living standards· Budgets & fiscal events· Welfare Unsung Britain bears the brunt Putting the 2025 Spring Statement in context 27 March 2025 by Camron Aref-Adib and Mike Brewer and Molly Broome and Alex Clegg and Nye Cominetti and Adam Corlett and Ruth Curtice and Emily Fry and Zachary Leather and Jonathan Marshall and Cara Pacitti and Simon Pittaway and Hannah Slaughter and James Smith and Imogen Stone and Greg Thwaites and Lalitha Try This briefing note analyses the choices the Government has made in the context of an awkward backdrop to the 2025 Spring Statement. READ MORE
Living standards Public pivot How a growing state will shape the living standards outlook for 2025 7 January 2025 by Alex Clegg and Adam Corlett and Louise Murphy and Simon Pittaway and Imogen Stone and Greg Thwaites 2025 will be a year with a bigger role for the state. Jeremy Hunt cut taxes in his last two Budgets and planned to pay for them with real-terms cuts to public spending in many areas. Rachel Reeves’s October Budget reversed these plans, pivoting to increasing spending on public services as a share of the … Continued READ MORE
