There is no doubt that the last 14 years have seen pitiful progress in living standards. Real household disposable income per person has stagnated in the UK since the 2019 election, while most parliaments have recorded annual growth of around 2% since the Second World War. The distribution of income changes over the last five years and over the entire period of Conservative government since 2010 is more interesting.
Despite a huge increase in food bank use and cuts to social security for working-age households, the surprise is that it is the poorest households that are doing better than the rest of the UK.
However, this is a relative measure. Taking detailed income data up to 2022-23 and updating it with known trends thereafter, the Resolution Foundation finds that only the poorest 20% of the income distribution saw real income gains over the last parliamentary term.
Here is More from Chris Giles at the FT. Samir Varma sends me this link about the problems with UK driving schools and the resulting costs and queues. By the way, SNP faces losing three-quarters of its seats in Scotland (FT). And what will be the minimum number of voters needed to challenge the leadership of the Reform Party? Will there be a hard core?
