The government’s unfair public sector pay cap is currently coming under criticism from all sides. Rightly so. Those in the public sector have now faced years of pay freezes and real wage cuts. Vital public sector workers are unfairly receiving less and less money for their hard work. Don’t forget…Read more…
Bank warns consumer credit is a “pocket of risk that warrants vigilance”
Tackling the symptoms of the consumer credit boom without addressing the causes risks exacerbating the living standards crisis. Consumer credit was prominent in the yesterday’s assessment of financial stability by the Bank of England. Up front a chart shows the accelerating growth in various…Read more…
4 reasons to dismiss the Chancellor’s claim of ‘good progress’ on deficit reduction
Philip Hammond has been out and about this week looking for praise for deficit reduction. At his Mansion House speech he claimed: “the deficit is down by three-quarters – and below 3% of GDP”. He tweeted the same line in response to Office for National Statistics figures yesterday (my…Read more…
Why the rush to hike the State Pension age?
One of the first jobs for the newly appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, David Gauke MP, is to publish a report on the outcome of his department’s review of State Pension age. We know that a draft report to Parliament had been prepared when the general election was called. It is…Read more…
UK welfare benefits fall short of international standards
Within hours of the General Election, the government was held to account on the international stage for the failings of the UK welfare system – with worker reps from Sweden, France, Australia, the International Transport Federation all calling on the UK government to bring UK provision into line…Read more…
Rising inflation is contributing to falling wages, and the pay squeeze isn’t set to get better
Inflation is the highest it’s been since June 2013. CPI inflation rose to 2.9% in May, from 2.7% in April. Only a year ago, CPI inflation was as low as 0.3%. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the main contributor to the latest high inflation figure was rising prices for…Read more…
Can devolution generate inclusive growth in the West Midlands?
Last week’s General Election has engulfed Westminster in a wave of chaos and uncertainty. The local and mayoral elections held last month might therefore feel like a distant memory. But some parts of England that now have mayors with devolved powers have been getting to work, with unions at the…Read more…
Macron Hopes To Use French Summer Holidays To Drive Through Labour Reforms
The new French President Emmanuel Macron has said he intends to reform France’s labour laws before the end of this summer after meeting unions and telling them he ‘intends to act…Read more…
STOP PRESS: OECD now say 2018 UK real wage decline will be joint worst of all advanced economies
In today’s Economic Outlook the OECD show UK real wages falling by 1.1% in 2018, with nominal earnings growth of 1.5% outstripped by inflation of 2.7%. This is a big change of view on nominal earnings, which were previously expected to rise by 2.5% (in their March interim forecast). This revision…Read more…
OECD call for increased public investment as UK economy weakens and real wage decline intensifies
Today the OECD issue their twice yearly Economic Outlook, setting out their view of how the economy will develop, and how governments should respond. Their message for the UK government is clear: they need to invest. The headline on their economic comm…Read more…
West Midlands devolution – ending the fly-over state
Devolution has a long history. The election of metro mayor’s across the UK was just the latest milestone in the devolution journey. Successive governments have recognised that the UK is far too centralised and that to unlock the full potential of the UK’s nations and region’s Whitehall needs to…Read more…
Britain still needs a pay rise – real wages are falling again
Are you feeling the pinch? That’s because real wages are falling – again. In 2016, average real weekly pay (that’s pay once inflation has been taken into account) for UK workers was around £24 less than it was back in 2008. This adds up to over £1,200 a year. The UK is one of few…
The…Read more…
Unite warns voters ‘Tories are no friends of the North’
The Conservative Party is ‘no friend of the North’ but instead the party of the ‘leafy shires and the lucky few’, Unite the country’s largest union is warning. Billboards carrying that message will…Read more…
Only Labour Backs UK Manufacturing.
Productivity: the long global view
We’re often told that the key to raising wages is to solve the ‘productivity puzzle’. Output per worker has stagnated since the financial crisis, leading economists to worry that the outlook for the economy is bleak. But a range of evidence across many countries suggests that the fall in…Read more…
As real wages fall, household debt is set to reach record highs
This year, household debt is set to be higher than ever before. TUC analysis finds that unsecured debt per household is set to reach £13,900 in 2017. In 2016, unsecured debt per household was already £13,200 – higher than at any other point since the financial crisis and only marginally below…Read more…
Why aren’t wages rising?
Today’s labour market figures presented yet another iteration of the puzzle of the UK labour market in recent years: why are higher employment rates not pushing up wages? Traditional labour market theory tells us that as unemployment falls, workers feel more secure in their jobs and more able to…Read more…
Industrial Strategy: Which sectors should we focus our support on?
If industrial policy is suddenly so popular amongst politicians wanting our votes, why was it so controversial before now? The answer to that question lies in the fact that industrial policy has been based on an understanding that some business sectors…Read more…
Why all the political parties should be talking about pay, jobs and rights?
What’s at stake for working people in this election? Economic issues increasingly risk being the dog that didn’t bark in this election. The 2015 campaign saw a fierce debate about the figures, whether on the scale of the cost-of-living crisis or the size of the deficit, at the centre of parties’…Read more…
Active industrial strategy: Where should the next government put its money?
The main parties in this election are committed to an active industrial strategy, a great improvement over years of leaving much of the development of industry to market forces. But we need to see the detail. As they publish their manifestos, we’ll be watching closely to see what their own…Read more…