Long-term effects of recession on living standards yet to be felt

Understand this issue

Rank of local authorities by average household income compared to rank by average consumption after housing costs

data item

On average, London local authorities rank at the top of the income distribution, but are bottom of the net-of-housing consumption distribution.

11 April 2025

Average household consumption spending before and after housing costs, and mean weekly per-capita income, in different local authorities, 2018–2019

data item

Londoners may have the highest average incomes, but their household spending once you account for housing costs is lower than other regions.

11 April 2025

Spring Statement 2025: IFS Zooms In

podcast

What were the decisions and trade-offs made by Chancellor Reeves?

27 March 2025

Policy analysis

Which places have the highest standard of living?

comment

Measuring living standards using average household spending gives a starkly different picture of regional inequalities than using average income.

11 April 2025

How did tax credits transform the UK welfare system?

comment

Over 20 years since they were introduced, tax credits have now been replaced by universal credit. How did they change the UK welfare system?

4 April 2025

Today’s ONS figures highlight uncertainty around fiscal forecasts

comment

Public finance data out today show that borrowing overshot the official forecast made at last month's Spring Statement by £15 billion.

23 April 2025

Academic research

Small area consumption estimates for local authorities in Great Britain

working paper

In this paper, we estimate average equivalised consumption measures across local authority districts in Great Britain.

11 April 2025

Measuring cost of living inequality during an inflation surge

working paper

We provide new evidence that inflation inequality surged during the 2021–2023 cost-of living crisis.

9 May 2025

Estimating intra-household sharing from time-use data

working paper

Estimating intra-household sharing is crucial to understanding overall inequality. However, expenditure data is almost always at the household level.

2 May 2025