Resolution Foundation Events Podcast

What can Westminster learn from Scotland on reforming disability benefits?

Resolution Foundation Research Director Lindsay Judge talks you through the learnings from recent benefit reforms in Scotland, joined by Louise Murphy and Ben Geiger. Read 'Delivering dignity' on our website today to learn more.

Taking better care of our workers: How can a Fair Pay Agreement improve conditions for social care staff?

Adult social care is a vital public service. But this is not reflected in the pay and job quality on offer for England’s 1.5 million social care workers. Low-pay, zero-hours contracts, and breaches of labour market rules are worryingly widespread, and have contributed to a longstanding recruitment and retention crisis. The Government has rightly sought to address this by setting up a new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body (ASCNB), that brings together workers and employers to draw up a Fair Pay Agreement (FPA). But there are still big questions about how to turn this worthy ambition into deliverable improvements across the sector.
How can the ASCNB be set up quickly while delivering lasting improvements to care workers’ conditions? Which workers should be covered by the FPA, and what terms and conditions should be included? And how should the FPA be enforced in a sector currently rife with labour market non-compliance?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person event and interactive webinar to debate and discuss these questions. Following a presentation of the key recommendations from a new Resolution Foundation report, we will hear from leading experts on the key policy questions the Government needs to resolve to ensure the success of the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body and Fair Pay Agreement.

Can UK governments ever get immigration policy right? Book launch event for 'Why Immigration Policy Is Hard' by Professor Alan Manning

Immigration is one of the most salient and polarised issues among the British public – and one that successive Government policy initiatives have failed to resolve. Now central to the UK’s political debate, the issue regularly makes headlines and is used as a device by parties to win public opinion. Seen by some as a missing part of the UK’s growth strategy, and by others as having gone too far, any discussions are often binary and divisive. And while politicians recognise the need to get immigration policy right; they continue to be torn over what strategy is best, let alone how to deliver it.
In his latest book Why Immigration Policy Is Hard, Professor of Economics at the LSE and former Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee Alan Manning makes the case that while immigration policy will never satisfy everyone, that doesn’t mean it can’t be (and needs to be) done much better. Using cutting-edge international research, Alan seeks to inform debate by first building a picture of migration across the world, then assessing the issue from both the migrant and receiving countries’ perspective. Alan then assesses options for policy design, pushing for decisions to be made even where there are difficult trade-offs.

Second album syndrome? What Autumn Budget 2025 means for the public, financial markets and the cost of living

The Chancellor has prepared the pitch for a tough second Budget, with tax rises expected as part of a fiscal strategy designed to reassure markets that the UK’s public finances are firmly under control. But the Chancellor has also promised to protect the NHS, boost growth and support families with the cost of living. Acting decisively on all of these priorities would be no mean feat as part of a Budget that takes more than it gives.
How tough a settlement has the Chancellor delivered on tax rises and spending cuts? To what extent have manifesto pledges been breached? How much will the measures announced help or hinder economic growth? Who are the main winners and losers? And to what extent has this Budget laid the groundwork for the rest of the Parliament?
Speakers
Richard Hughes
Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility
Kamal Ahmed
Columnist at the Daily Telegraph
Yael Selfin
Vice Chair and Chief Economist at KPMG
James Smith
Research Director at the Resolution Foundation
Ruth Curtice
Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation (Chair)

Finding the right keys for growth: How should housing feature in the Budget?

Please note that due do technical difficulties the last couple of minutes of this event are not included in the recording.
November 13th 2025
The Budget run-in has centred around what taxes the Chancellor will need to raise to meet her fiscal rules. But housing could potentially play an equally decisive role. Ambitious planning reform could deliver the economic growth that Britain so desperately needs, the current mess of property taxation is ripe for reform, and better support for families in rented accommodation could raise living standards and reduce child poverty. Successive governments have failed to grapple with Britain’s housing challenges, but can the Chancellor afford not to grasp it?
How can planning reform be strengthened, and what might it mean for growth? How much appetite is there for touching the terrible twin taxes of stamp duty and council tax? And how should housing feature in the Government’s new Child Poverty strategy that will sit alongside the Budget?
SPEAKERS
Emily Williams
Director of Residential Research at Savills
Paul Cheshire
Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE
Jamie Carswell
Director of Housing and Safer Communities at the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Hannah Aldridge
Senior Research and Policy Analyst at the Resolution Foundation
Ruth Curtice
Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation (Chair)

When the levies break?

The Resolution Foundation has recently published research assessing how the Government can help families with high energy bills. Our Chief Executive discussed the proposals with Jonathan Marshall (one of our Principal Economists) and Adam Scorer, the Chief Executive of National Energy Action. Tune in to learn about the drivers of Britain’s stubbornly high household energy bills, and how reform of the costs added onto bills offers a route for helping families with the cost of living this winter. To learn more, read 'Splitting the bill' on our website today: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/splitting-the-bill/

Back for more? The Chancellor’s tax and spend options in her upcoming Budget

After delivering her first Budget last autumn, which included the biggest tax rises in decades to fund a major boost to public services, Rachel Reeves said that she would not be coming back with more tax increases. Fast forward 12 months and she’s about to do just that given a deteriorating outlook for the public finances risk the fiscal rules being broken. So the task for the Chancellor at this Budget is to show that she is serious about meeting her rules, boosting growth, and relieving cost of living pressures. Delivering all three in one Budget is an unenviable task.
How has the UK’s economic outlook changed since March? To what extent is our economic future being shaped by present uncertainty, or past poor performance? How much tax and spend tightening might the Chancellor need to? And how can she raise more revenue in a way that does the least harm to economic growth and living standards?

Seeking a NEET solution: Why are so many young people not learning or earning?

The number of 16-24 year olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is increasing, and drawing more political focus. Policy makers are right to worry about this major living standards concern – not earning or learning in early adulthood can stunt careers and earning potential for many years into the future. But if we’re to help NEETs we need to understand who they are and why they’re NEET, so that solutions are based on actual rather than imagined problems.
How many young people are NEET in Britain today? What’s driven the recent change, and how does it differ by age and gender? What are the key education and labour market problems facing young people today, and what can policy makers do to help them?