Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Oct 24The real Living Wage increases explainedThe below is my foreword to the Resolution Foundation report setting out the 2023/24 Living Wage rates. Foreword This marks the eighth year that the Living Wage Commission (LWC) has overseen the calculation of the Living Wage rates for the UK and London. This report, from the Resolution Foundation, sets…5 min read5 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Oct 5‘Riders on the Storm’: what would a Labour government face?This piece is co-authored with Nick Pearce, Prof Public Policy & Director at IPR. A future Labour government will face difficult circumstances — a stagnant economy, household hardship, political volatility and a weakened state. …20 min read20 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Jul 4The path back to shared growth runs through British flexicurityBritain has been so buffeted around by economic crisis over recent years that it feels almost indulgent to cast beyond the ongoing emergency phase of economic policy to consider the longer-term prospects and pre-requisites for shared growth. …7 min read7 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Dec 28, 2022System collision: the interaction of Universal Credit and Child Benefit withdrawal is creating a messIf there is anyone out there still harbouring the quaint idea that it’s the super-rich who face the highest marginal tax rates in the land, they should think again. There are various contenders for that dubious prize but we can now announce a clear winner: the small but fast-growing group…6 min read6 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Sep 22, 2022The real Living Wage increases explainedThe below is my foreword to the Resolution Foundation report setting out the 2022/23 Living Wage rates. This is the seventh year that the Living Wage Commission (LWC) has overseen the wage rates for the UK and London. This year’s rates are being announced in the middle of the worst…5 min read5 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Apr 2, 2022Talking ‘tax cuts’ amid Britain’s social stagnationThe social recession of the 2010s risks becoming a slump in the 2020s The letters from my kid’s school asking for voluntary contributions to help meet rising running costs are getting ever more desperate. It’s just a straw in the wind but speaks to the wider condition of the UK’s…4 min read4 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Nov 15, 2021Real Living Wage rates for 2021–2022: what’s behind this year’s increase?(The below is my foreword to the Resolution Foundation report setting out this year’s Living Wage calculation) This is the sixth year that the Living Wage Commission (LWC) has set the wage rates for the UK and London and, in the face of the continued economic challenges facing workers and…4 min read4 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Aug 29, 2021We all pay the price for narrow thinking on social protectionWe all pay the price for narrow thinking on social protection Whatever else ‘building back better’ was supposed to mean it is now clear it involves returning to exactly the system of social protection that existed before Covid struck. When the furlough scheme and the crisis-related increase to Universal Credit…4 min read4 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Jul 2, 2021Preparing for a decade of economic change: lessons from the era of White HeatBoris Johnson’s administration may well oversee the start of a period of major upheaval for the UK economy — quite possibly the largest since the 1980s. Whether it is post-Brexit trade dislocation, new patterns of production and consumption resulting from the imperative of Net Zero, a long Covid hangover, or…10 min read10 min read
Published inGavin Kelly’s blog·Mar 17, 2021Prospects for a fair work recovery?These are my slides for a recent talk called ‘A Fair work recovery?’ given to an event organised by the Fair Work Convention.3 min read3 min read
