Resolution Foundation - The Living Standards Audit 2018

From the Executive Summary:

The post-crisis decade has brought a renewed focus on living standards, inequality and poverty – and on the effectiveness of policy in supporting income growth.

Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the nature of Britain’s economy – and the way growth feeds through to the incomes of its citizens – appear much changed. While the country avoided what was for a time the very real threat of a collapse of its financial system, it continues to suffer from an unprecedented stagnation in productivity growth that undermines the strength of the economy’s recovery. And the government’s finances remain under pressure too.

The annual deficit has returned to its pre-crisis level, but the UK’s debt-to-GDP ratio is still more than twice its previous level. These shifts have prompted an ever-sharper focus on the living standards of the UK’s 34 million families.

Post-crisis falls at the top of the income distribution have been replaced by relatively modest recovery. In direct contrast, households at the bottom of the income distribution have seen some immediate post-crisis protection replaced by a policy of benefit cuts in the name of fiscal consolidation.

With income growth disappointing for such a large share of the income distribution however, existing issues of inequality and poverty have come to gain more and more traction in our political debate.

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ABC Note: The Living Standards Audit 2018 can be downloaded below: