Resolution Foundation Podcast

Britain’s new safety net: Where are the Government’s welfare reforms heading?

Where are the Government’s welfare reforms heading?

How to spend £100 billion wisely

Which areas of public investment should be prioritised at the Spending Review?

The challenges for Britain’s migrant workforce: Understanding precarious work among foreign-born workers, and implications for wider labour market policy.

What are the labour market experiences of foreign-born workers? How do systemic issues allow poor practices to persist? What are the wider implications for the UK labour market? And how can policy – including the measures in the upcoming Employment Rights Bill – better protect workers?

Turning up the heat How to quicken Britain’s heat pumps roll-out and hit our net zero targets

Our homes are now the second biggest contributor the UK’s carbon footprint, and efforts to address this rely on the widespread replacement of gas boilers with electric heat pumps. But the rollout of heat pumps is slow and behind schedule, despite generous grants on offer, and particularly so among low-to-middle income families and those living in urban areas. Home heating is one of the most visible parts of the net zero transition to households, and a policy shift is required to get more fitted into homes and ensure that all families ultimately benefit via lower energy bills. But these shifts are neither free, nor straightforward.

Making public services better for low-to-middle income families

Despite the cuts announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, spending on public services is set to be on average £43 billion higher over the years of the upcoming Spending Review, compared with what was set out by the previous Government at the 2024 Spring Budget. But with much of this extra spending front-loaded to this year and next, questions remain about funding pressures in the years after that. These services are vital for families – providing ‘in kind’ benefits which provide a huge boost to the living standards of lower-income households. So future provision will make a difference to the outlook for living standards.

A league of their own: What can the UK learn from the US’ post-pandemic productivity acceleration?

What is driving the US’ impressive productivity outperformance? How does it differ from the UK, and what lessons can be drawn? And what can firms and policy makers do to reverse the UK’s productivity woes, and prevent another decade of economic stagnation in Britain?

The metrics that really matter How can we better measure economic and societal change?

Book launch for The Measure of Progress by Diane Coyle.

Minimum wage, maximum pressure - Assessing short-term impacts and long-term plans for the UK’s wage floor

The minimum wage has been a huge success story since its introduction in 1999 – but 2025 might be its trickiest year yet. The combination of increases to employer National Insurance and a bigger-than-expected 6.7 per cent rise in the National Living Wage has left businesses warning of jobs cuts and hiring freezes. Previous such warnings haven’t materialised, but with the jobs market already in recession territory, might this year be different? It is amidst this uncertainty and challenging backdrop that the Government will need set out a longer-term plan for the minimum wage.