Resolution Foundation Events Podcast

Tax cuts today, spending cuts tomorrow? How the Budget might shape the General Election and beyond

An election is coming, and therefore so are tax cuts in the Budget on 6th March. But the size of those tax cuts are dependent on the amount of fiscal room for manoeuvre the Chancellor has. And their shape will reflect where his political and economic priorities lie. Plus tax cuts come in a context of tax rises already announced, and spending cuts pencilled in for after the election.
Has the economic outlook changed over recent months? How much fiscal wriggle room might the Chancellor get from the Office for Budget for Responsibility? Should the priority be announcing tax cuts, or scrapping planned spending cuts? And will Budget ’24 make the slightest bit of difference to the election to come?
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 the Foundation’s Budget preview, we will hear from leading experts on what’s likely to be in it and where that leaves the election, and the outlook for whoever has to govern after it.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/the-election-budget/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/tax-cuts-today-spending-cuts-tomorrow/ 

Trading standards: How exposure to global trade shapes our living standards

Britain is an open economy, and has become more open over recent decades – despite the impact of Brexit and ‘slowbalisation’. But the quantity and type of goods and services we trade isn’t the only thing that has shifted. So has what we consume and where we work. All of these shifts affect our exposure to trade, from its day to day flows to occasional sudden shocks. Yet we pay next to no attention to these issues, which are critical to our living standards.
How has globalisation changed the country’s exposure to the gains, and risks, from trade? Who is most affected, and how much does it matter for their living standards? How does trade affect us as consumers, and as workers? And what might the impact of future trade shocks be?
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 new research on how changing trade patterns have affected our living standards, we will hear from leading experts on what this means for workers, firms and policy makers.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/decent-exposure/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/trading-standards/ 

Saving for today. And tomorrow. How to boost households financial resilience now, and living standards in retirement

British households aren’t saving enough. Pensions auto-enrolment has got far more of us saving for retirement, but too many of us are not on track for a comfortable old age. More immediately, too few of us have access to rainy-day pots to help us through an unexpected shock. Traditional approaches to encourage people to build up this kind of savings, focused on tax incentives, haven’t worked. And there are tensions not only between saving more for retirement or to boost financial resilience today, but also with consumption that has been squeezed badly during the cost of living crisis.
How do we manage the trade-offs between saving and consumption? Can we save more for our pensions, without leaving people with even less rainy day savings? And what lessons can we learn from approaches that have worked and led to Brits saving more?
The Resolution Foundation – in partnership with the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust – hosted an in-person and interactive webinar to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation that outlines the Foundation’s recommendations for building a cohesive savings system, we heard from leading experts on the issue of savings and financial resilience in the UK.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/precautionary-tales/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/saving-for-today-and-tomorrow/ 

New age or age-old appeal: How different generations view the parties and issues that will determine the General Election

In recent decades age has replaced class as one of the key determinants of a voter’s values and voting behaviour. But these trends never sit still, especially as issues – from Europe to the environment, and the economy – rise and fall in terms of their electoral salience. We know that the next election will be very different to the last election. But the issue terrain on which the election will be fought, and what that means for different types of voters, is still up for grabs.
What issues are most salient for different age cohorts, and how might it have changed since the last election? To what extent do other voter characteristics like income, education status and housing tenure play a role, both in how people vote, and whether they vote at all? And what might be the generational battle lines in the coming General Election?
The Resolution Foundation hosted an in-person and interactive webinar to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new research on intergenerational voting intentions, we heard from leading experts on how these issues might play out during the election year.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/poll-position/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/new-age-or-age-old-appeal/ 

Turning a corner? The political and economic outlook for a critical election year

The worst of the cost of living crisis appears to be behind us, with inflation more than halving since its peak. But 2024 may not be plain sailing economically, and it certainly won’t be politically with an election in store. While wages are at last growing faster than prices, economic growth has flatlined while taxes, and housing costs, are rising. Meanwhile, the outlook for the public finances is unstable, as politicians try to tempt voters with tax and spending commitments in the run up to the election. With the economy set to be the key election battleground for the first time since 2015, how households feel about their financial prospects, and that of the country as a whole, will matter hugely.
How is the cost-of-living crisis likely to evolve in 2024? What economic challenges and opportunities – for households, businesses and the country – can we expect in the year ahead? What role will the economy play in the coming general election – and what aspects of it will different parties want to focus on?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and online event to debate and answer these questions. We will hear from a leading panel of experts on what will shape British politics and economics in the year ahead, before an interactive audience Q&A.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/from-merry-christmas-to-a-messy-new-year/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/turning-a-corner/ 

Rising rents and rebounding wages: Where is Britain’s cost-of-living crisis heading?

Inflation is down, but Britain’s cost-of-living crisis is still very much with us. The legacy of previous price rises for energy and food are now combining with a new pressure: housing. Private rents are rising at their fastest rate in over a decade, while the impact of higher interest rates is still feeding through into mortgages. But there is a glimmer of hope in pay packets, which are growing again in real terms after another painful squeeze.
How are the twin trends of rising housing costs and rebounding pay being felt? How much variation do these averages hide – and is it the same people seeing their rents surge and pay rise? Are renters or those with a mortgage being harder hit? And what does this all mean for the next stage of the cost-of-living crisis?
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, we will hear from leading experts on how Britain’s latest living standards crunch is evolving.
Read the report: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/pressure-on-pay-prices-and-properties/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/rising-rents-and-rebounding-wages/ 

Ending Stagnation: Steering economic change

The goal of a new economic strategy is not a somewhat richer, somewhat fairer, version of the UK’s stagnant status quo, but a more enduring shift in direction; economic change will have to be embraced and steered. And yet despite popular claims that change is speeding up, it is slowing down; the reallocation of labour between sectors is at its lowest level in over 90 years.
Panel discussion on 'Steering economic change' at the final report conference for The Economy 2030 Inquiry.
Speakers:
Gregory Thwaites, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times
Professor David Edgerton, Professor of History at King’s College London
Stephanie Flanders, Head of Bloomberg Economics
Lord David Willetts, President of the Resolution Foundation (Chair)
Read the report: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/ending-stagnation/ 
View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/ending-stagnation/ 

Ending Stagnation: Keir Starmer MP in conversation with Zanny Minton Beddoes

Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer MP, in conversation with Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, at the final report conference for The Economy 2030 Inquiry.
The UK has great strengths, but is a decade and a half into a period of stagnation. The combination of slow growth and high inequality is proving toxic for low- and middle-income Britain. The result is a country falling behind its peers, where taxes, rather than wages, are rising, and living standards were under strain long before the cost of living crisis struck. The task facing the UK is to embark on a new path.
A new economic strategy for Britain must leverage rather than downplay its strengths, confront rather than ignore its weaknesses, face-up to rather than wish-away trade-offs, and align rather than silo agendas stretching from industrial policy to tax reform and the net zero transition.
Over the past three years, the Resolution Foundation has been collaborating with the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE on The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, to investigate, understand and confront these economic challenges. The project culminated in a major new book and conference – Ending Stagnation – where we set out and discussed Britain’s path to a fairer and more prosperous future.
Read the report: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/ending-stagnation/