Council tax matters. It matters to local government as, at over £31 billion a year, it now makes up over half of its funding for non-education expenditure. It matters for households, for whom the bills take up an average of over 3% of their income. And it matters to central government, which is...

This report examines how living standards - most commonly measured by households' incomes - were changing in the UK up to approximately the eve of the current COVID-19 crisis, using the latest official household income data covering years up to 2018-19. We particularly focus on how this differed...

This report examines changes in the distribution of household incomes in the UK, and the determinants and consequences of recent trends. This includes analysing not only changes in average living standards, but also inequality in household incomes and measures of income poverty and deprivation....

It is now around a decade since the financial crisis that triggered the Great Recession of 2008-09. In many respects, the impacts of this recession on the living standards of UK households have been unusually severe. Median household income is now around 15% below its long-run trend, having...

Debates over living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK are often hampered by the fact that official data on household incomes are available only with a significant lag. Currently, the latest statistics are for 2015-16. In this report, we attempt to fill this gap by estimating what has...

On 23 June 2016, the UK public voted in favour of leaving the European Union. However, important decisions remain about the model for the UK's relationship with Europe outside of the EU, not least whether the UK seeks to remain a "member" of the Single Market or only seeks (tariff-free)...

On 5 July this year the NHS will be 70. In all its 70 years it has rarely been far from the headlines. It has been through more than its fair share of reforms, crises and funding ups and downs. Over that period, the amount we spend on it has risen inexorably. Yet, today, concerns about the...