Resolution Foundation Events Podcast

Still coping? How families are faring as the cost-of-living crisis enters its second year

The UK’s cost-of-living crunch has entered its second year. While inflation should fall significantly in the coming months, the crisis is far from over. Prices are rising more slowly rather than falling. And the significant government support provided last year is being scaled back, while fast rising interest rates will affect more and more homeowners in the months ahead. Many people have used savings or support from friends and family to cope with the crisis so far – but this support is finite.
How is the cost-of-living crisis evolving as it enters its second year? How is the squeeze playing out across different families and generations? And what should policy makers be looking out for in the months ahead?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from our latest cost-of-living survey – supported by the Health Foundation – we will hear from leading experts on how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted the UK and evolved over time.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/hoping-and-coping/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/still-coping/ 

Playing by the rules: A new approach to enforcing workers’ rights - Session 3: Keynote speech from Angela Rayner MP

Keynote speech by Angela Rayner MP, followed by Q&A with Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Torsten Bell.
Debates about raising, or indeed cutting, legal protections for workers are a staple of British politics – with welcome progress including a rising minimum wage driving down low pay. But too often the reality that these rights, rates and rules mean little if they aren’t enforced is forgotten. The systems used to enforce workers’ rights are often fragmented and underfunded, making it harder to identify breaches and deter poor behaviour. It is still far too easy for bad employers to undercut good employers by ducking minimum legal standards. And our focus on individuals to enforce their own rights brings challenges when those most at risk from rights violations are the least likely to report it. The UK needs a new approach to better protect workers and enforce their rights, informed by our own experience but also that of other countries.
To what extent do UK firms comply with workers’ rights? How are workers’ rights currently enforced in the UK, and how does this differ to practices in other countries? And what reforms might enable enforcement agencies to be more successful at protecting workers from rights violations?
To mark the culmination of a three-year investigation into labour market enforcement – supported by Unbound Philanthropy and drawing on contributions from international research partners – the Resolution Foundation is hosting a half-day conference to debate and answer these questions. Following presentations of the key highlights from the investigation’s final report, we will hear from leading experts on the challenges of enforcing workers’ rights and how these can be overcome. The event will conclude with a keynote speech from Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner MP, followed by networking drinks.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/enforce-for-good/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/playing-by-the-rules/ 

Playing by the rules: A new approach to enforcing workers’ rights - Session 2: The solution

Speakers include: Patricia Rice, Low Pay Commissioner; Matt Warman MP, Co-chair of the APPG on the Future of Work; John Kelly, Irish Workplace Relations; Lindsay Judge, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation; and Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation.
Debates about raising, or indeed cutting, legal protections for workers are a staple of British politics – with welcome progress including a rising minimum wage driving down low pay. But too often the reality that these rights, rates and rules mean little if they aren’t enforced is forgotten. The systems used to enforce workers’ rights are often fragmented and underfunded, making it harder to identify breaches and deter poor behaviour. It is still far too easy for bad employers to undercut good employers by ducking minimum legal standards. And our focus on individuals to enforce their own rights brings challenges when those most at risk from rights violations are the least likely to report it. The UK needs a new approach to better protect workers and enforce their rights, informed by our own experience but also that of other countries.
To what extent do UK firms comply with workers’ rights? How are workers’ rights currently enforced in the UK, and how does this differ to practices in other countries? And what reforms might enable enforcement agencies to be more successful at protecting workers from rights violations?
To mark the culmination of a three-year investigation into labour market enforcement – supported by Unbound Philanthropy and drawing on contributions from international research partners – the Resolution Foundation is hosting a half-day conference to debate and answer these questions. Following presentations of the key highlights from the investigation’s final report, we will hear from leading experts on the challenges of enforcing workers’ rights and how these can be overcome.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/enforce-for-good/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/playing-by-the-rules/ 

Playing by the rules: A new approach to enforcing workers’ rights - Session 1: The problem

Speakers include: Kate Roberts, Head of Policy at FLEX; Kate Shoesmith, Deputy CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation; Alan Bogg, Old Square Chambers; Hannah Slaughter, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation; and Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation.
Debates about raising, or indeed cutting, legal protections for workers are a staple of British politics – with welcome progress including a rising minimum wage driving down low pay. But too often the reality that these rights, rates and rules mean little if they aren’t enforced is forgotten. The systems used to enforce workers’ rights are often fragmented and underfunded, making it harder to identify breaches and deter poor behaviour. It is still far too easy for bad employers to undercut good employers by ducking minimum legal standards. And our focus on individuals to enforce their own rights brings challenges when those most at risk from rights violations are the least likely to report it. The UK needs a new approach to better protect workers and enforce their rights, informed by our own experience but also that of other countries.
To what extent do UK firms comply with workers’ rights? How are workers’ rights currently enforced in the UK, and how does this differ to practices in other countries? And what reforms might enable enforcement agencies to be more successful at protecting workers from rights violations?
To mark the culmination of a three-year investigation into labour market enforcement – supported by Unbound Philanthropy and drawing on contributions from international research partners – the Resolution Foundation is hosting a half-day conference to debate and answer these questions. Following presentations of the key highlights from the investigation’s final report, we will hear from leading experts on the challenges of enforcing workers’ rights and how these can be overcome. 
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/enforce-for-good/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/playing-by-the-rules/ 

Good work: How to renew the UK’s economic strategy and put better jobs at its heart

The minimum wage has more than halved the share of low paid workers across Britain over the past two decades. This is a huge success – but it is far from job done. While low-paid workers today earn more, they are too often trapped on short-hours, facing poor working conditions or lacking the advantages higher earners take for granted – from sick pay to control over when they work. Too many jobs are seen as low status, even when they are highly valued. Good work should be a core objective of a renewed economic strategy for the UK – but it will require a new policy agenda, going far beyond the minimum wage, to achieve it. This will bring trade-offs that need to be confronted not wished away: better jobs for some will mean higher prices for others.
How much higher can the minimum wage go? What are the top priorities for wider improvements in the quality of work? Who will win, and who will lose, from efforts to spread good work? And what wider changes might a radical strategy to improve the quality of lower paid work in Britain bring for our economy?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from Low Pay Britain 2023, we will hear from leading experts on the future of lower paid work.
Read the report: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/low-pay-britain-2023/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/good-work/ 

Making your voice heard? How different generations participate in politics

The political context in which people grow up can play a hugely influential role in how that age cohort participate in democracy. From the dominance of different political parties and prevalence of strikes and protests, to the distribution of information and ideas through social media, the society people are raised in affects the ways in which they interact with politicians and political ideas. Maintaining an informed and engaged electorate in the decades to come requires grappling with these historical shifts and their implications for democratic governance.
Does the historical context of when a generation comes of age affect their political engagement? Are older generations, for example, who came of age in a period when elections were fundamental to the existence of democratic government, more likely to engage with political parties? What about younger generations coming of age in the historical moments that followed? And what can this tell us about how democratic governance and political participation could change in the future?
As part of the Connecting Generations series of Thought Leader Talks, the Resolution Foundation is hosting an event with Professor Maria Grasso to discuss how age, period and cohort analysis can help us examine generational differences in political activities. Following a presentation by Maria, we will hear from leading experts on what this means for the future of politics and democracy.
Watch the event here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/making-your-voice-heard/

Thinking about tomorrow: Overcoming the UK’s low and volatile public investment problem

The UK has been under-investing for decades. British business isn’t keen on investing, and the public sector if anything does even worse. Public investment is not only low by international standards, it’s very volatile. Politicians like to announce investment rises, but Chancellor’s also like to cut it when they need to make the fiscal arithmetic add up. Scrapping a bridge tomorrow is always easier than firing a nurse or raising taxes today. But sustained low investment has left us poorer and affected our lives in everything from the healthcare we receive to the homes we live in. Turning this situation around requires radical change to how do such investment, but investing to grow also comes with risks that need to be managed.
Why do British governments invest so little? How can we snap out of the cycle of public investment boom and bust? And what would it take to invest better, as well as more?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new research on the challenges of boosting public investment in the UK and our proposed policy solutions, we will hear from leading experts on the feasibility of putting these policies into practice.
Read the report: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/cutting-the-cuts/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/thinking-about-tomorrow/ 

The future of the UK economy: Navigating a route to a fairer and more prosperous South Yorkshire, and beyond

The United Kingdom is facing a decisive decade of huge economic change, from restructuring after Brexit and the pandemic, to urgently transitioning towards a net zero future, and adapting to technological shifts amid an ageing population. But it is doing that against a backdrop of low growth and high inequality, a toxic combination that leaves low- and middle-income households dangerously exposed to today’s cost of living crisis. South Yorkshire’s many strengths – including world-class universities in Sheffield and service sector firms across the region – must be harnessed to manage the economic changes of the 2020s well. But to really thrive, the region will need to find ways to ensure that everyone benefits from growth and investment.
What role can economic strategies – national and local – play in responding to the challenges of the 2020s, to secure higher growth and lower inequality? How will the changes to come affect the jobs we do, the places we live and the businesses we work for? And what are the prospects for cities like Sheffield, regions like Yorkshire, and nations like Britain to be able to rise to these challenges?
As part of the Economy 2030 Inquiry – in collaboration with the LSE and funded by the Nuffield Foundation – the Resolution Foundation is hosting this event in partnership with the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield to debate and answer these questions. Based on the research findings from the Inquiry so far, we will be joined by leading experts to discuss how different areas of the UK – particularly Sheffield and the wider South Yorkshire region – have responded to past periods of economic change, and how to make the coming decade of change a success.
Watch the event here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/the-future-of-the-uk-economy-south-yorkshire/