The Chancellor was right to suspend the current set of fiscal targets during the pandemic, and he is also right to take time to consider what a good set of post-pandemic targets will be.
Since the March Budget, encouraging early indicators on the recovery in consumer spending, the labour market and government revenues have led to an upwards revision in most economic forecasts.
The IFS Green Budget 2021, in association with Citi and with funding from the Nuffield Foundation, analysed the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, its economic legacy, and the big decisions confronting Chancellor Rishi Sunak as he prepares for his upcoming Budget and Spending Review.
The IFS Green Budget looks at the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Chancellor aims to secure a lasting recovery and deliver on the Government’s other objectives and priorities.
"Both government funding decisions over the past decade and the structure of council tax have worked against “levelling up”." Paul Johnson in The Times on local government funding.
We examine what’s happened and what’s next for councils in England and Wales, focusing on the short-term financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the medium-term financial outlook, and planned and potential financial and service reforms over the next few years.
Using mortality registers and administrative data on income and population, we develop new evidence on the magnitude of life expectancy inequality in Hungary and the scope for health policy in mitigating this. We document considerable inequalities in life expectancy at age 45 across settlement-level income groups, and show that these inequalities have increased between 1991–96 and 2011–16 for both men and women. We show that avoidable deaths play a large role in life expectancy inequality. Income-related inequalities in health behaviours, access to care, and healthcare use are all closely linked to the inequality in life expectancy.
At this IFS event, experts discussed new financial pressures and service responsibilities for councils in England and Wales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, forthcoming reforms to the council funding system and social care reforms.
October 5th is the deadline for big companies to report their gender pay gaps. In 2019 – before the pandemic disrupted data collection – women were paid 16% less per hour than men on average. The gap in average annual earnings was even larger, at 37%, since women are much more likely to work part-time.
Felicity Buchan MP and leading experts in tax discussed whether the UK should make more use of taxes on wealth at this Conservative Party Conference fringe event.
