Blog
The unequal impact of the energy bill crisis
The benefits system could be the best route to supporting households that need it most

By
Chaitanya Kumar, Dominic Caddick, Alfie Stirling
24 January 2022

As international gas prices soar to record highs, UK households are set to face a painful rise in their energy bills; estimated at £600-£800 on average from April this year – or a total rise in annual UK bills of £14bn. Nearly 3 million households were already behind on their energy bill payments even

Videos
A Green New Deal for people and places
What would a Green New Deal mean for communities across the country?

14 January 2022

We can tackle climate change and inequality at the same time. The Green New Deal would not only curb the worst effects of climate breakdown but would reprogram our economy so that it works for everyone.
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For this video Blake House filmmakers co-op visited people and places across the country to ask what the Green New Deal would mean for them. From farmers in Lancashire to students in Warwickshire, participants share what a fairer and greener future might

Publications
Five steps towards a Green New Deal
You can’t level up without a Green New Deal – here’s how we get one.

By
Margaret Welsh
14 January 2022

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Last November, governments from 197 countries met in Glasgow for Cop26, the UN climate talks, with the hope of presenting plans to limit global heating to no more than 1.5C. But the conference was a disappointment that failed to live up to its own rhetoric. It came hot on the heels of a UK autumn budget which

Blog
A Living Income and Great Homes Upgrade would solve the cost of living crisis
No matter who we are, we should all be able to keep our homes warm in the winter.

By
Michael Pugh
11 January 2022

Here we go again. The UK is plunging into another crisis, this time as a spike in energy prices collides with soaring inflation and lower incomes, to create what the Resolution Foundation is calling the ​‘year of the squeeze’. At NEF, our two flagship campaigns, for a Living Income and a Great Homes Upgrade, offer the long-term answers we need. Now is

Publications
Shorter working week newsletter 10
European Network for the Fair Sharing of Working Time

06 January 2022

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The newsletter is published every few months and captures the latest, most exciting developments in working-time reduction from across Europe. 
It is produced by the New Economics Foundation (UK), and is coordinated by ATTAC (Germany – Group ArbeitFAIRTeilen) and Réseau Roosevelt (France). It is supported by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Brussels Office and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
If

Publications
NEF review of the year 2021
Highlights from the last 12 months

20 December 2021

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We are very excited to share NEF’s Review of the Year with you – an overview of everything we’ve been working on in 2021. Inside, you can read about the three missions which we’ve built our work around this year: the new social settlement, the Green New Deal and the democratic economy. Below, we’ve picked out 12 highlights that we are particularly proud of.
1. Living Income: 21st century social security
NEF is campaigning for a

Blog
Map: has your region levelled up yet?
Use our online tool to find out

By
Clifford Singer
15 December 2021

What has two years of ​‘levelling up’ done for your region? Head over to the Living Income website, where our interactive map gives you the hard facts.

Use the map to find out whether your region has levelled up
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Campaigns
Living income

Topics
Work & pay
Inequality
Social security

Videos
The UK is being torn apart, not levelled up
Half of families are £110 a year worse off since ‘levelling up’ was launched in 2019

13 December 2021

Two years ago, Boris Johnson pledged to ​‘level up’ the UK. NEF research shows the opposite has happened: income and regional inequality have grown significantly. 

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Our new research shows the reality of ​‘levelling up’.
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Read the full research.
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Blog
Half of UK families are £110 worse off a year since 2019 general election
But richest 5% are better off by £3,300, suggesting Britain is being torn apart rather than levelled up

By
Dominic Caddick, Alfie Stirling
13 December 2021

The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised ​“to unite and level up, spreading opportunity across the whole United Kingdom”. When Boris Johnson became prime minister he doubled down on this promise to ​“level up across Britain”, with a focus on ​“forgotten people and the

Publications
Squeezed out
The impact of build costs and planning reform on social housing supply in England

By
Rose Grayston
01 December 2021

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Even in benign conditions for housebuilding, the current planning system cannot provide the social and affordable homes communities need. But housebuilding is not enjoying benign conditions. The country is currently experiencing escalating build costs because a host of international and domestic events have disrupted labour

Publications
Map: squeezed out
Risks to social and affordable housing supply from increased build costs

01 December 2021

Read the report

Topics
Housing & land

If you back a recovery plan based around great public services, protecting the planet and reducing inequality, please support NEF to build back better.
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Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Closing the Covid-19 vaccination gap
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Achal Prabhala and Saiorse Fitzpatrick

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
29 November 2021

Coronavirus cases are once again rising in Europe and across the world. The World Health Organisation has said that countries shouldn’t be giving out booster jabs for the rest of the year, but in the UK we’re offering third shots to people as young as 40. Meanwhile, only 3% of people in low-income countries have had a single dose.
Covid vaccines may have

Publications
FFS?
Fossil fuels support in the UK tax system

By
Lukasz Krebel, Miriam Brett, Sarah Arnold
25 November 2021

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As the host of the recent 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) the UK had an opportunity to showcase leadership in taking decisive steps towards deep transformation and decarbonisation of the economy. Further, the UK Government’s recently published net-zero emissions by

Blog
Taking the climate crisis to the courts
In recent years, individuals and communities have taken their governments and companies to court for climate inaction. And they’re having success.

By
Lucy Maxwell
24 November 2021

This is an article from the fourth issue of the New Economics Zine. You can read the full issue here.
The world is heading towards catastrophic climate crisis, and the facts are stark: the past decade was the hottest on record, and extreme weather events are wreaking havoc around the world. Without deep and immediate

Blog
This land is our land
Who owns land in the UK influenced the industrial revolution and British colonial ambitions. And now it’s a vital part of addressing the climate crisis.

By
Josina Calliste
22 November 2021

This is an article from the fourth issue of the New Economics Zine. You can read the full issue here.
Land is ultimately about power. Those who own the land decide what to do with it, who can access it, and how they are allowed to behave on it. Historically, the more land you owned the more political clout you had in parliament, the

Blog
1.5°C is dead, long live 1.5°C
We should draw motivation from the loss of this target and galvanise a much stronger public movement around it

By
Chaitanya Kumar
19 November 2021

“We are sinking, but so is everyone else”. Those were the powerful words from the foreign minister of Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific that is experiencing the brutal impacts of the climate crisis. It was with a similar sinking feeling that I left the Glasgow climate summit, dubbed as the planet’s last hope to arrest global heating. It is perhaps too early

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: The future of work
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Amelia Horgan

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
19 November 2021

A record number of employees have quit their jobs in recent months, in what’s been dubbed the Great Resignation. Newspapers report that it’s part of post-Covid demand for flexible working and better work life balance.
After last year, where up to a quarter of the UK workforce was paid not to work through the furlough scheme, are we reassessing our relationship to our jobs? How does work impact our

Blog
Public debt and debt servicing costs: The nightmare that never was
Debt servicing costs needn’t keep the chancellor up at night, maybe environmental breakdown should?

By
Frank van Lerven
19 November 2021

Not too long ago, the state of public finances was thought to be giving chancellor Rishi Sunak ​“sleepless nights”, as he struggled with Britain’s growing debt levels and how to pay it all back. But then it became clear that the Bank of England was bankrolling the Coronavirus bill and in almost a blink of an eye, it was as if the last ten

Blog
How can local people take action on things that matter to them?
Learning from the Local Conversations Evaluation

By
Tiffany Lam
18 November 2021

How can local people build control and take action on things that matter to them? Our research shows that there are five main components of collective control: social connectedness; knowledge, understanding, and skills; money and resources; influences; and confidence. Questions around how to build local people’s collective control and capacity for action have been at the heart of our evaluation of

Blog
The turning tide
As we square up to the climate emergency, politicians are starting to ruminate on how to get the public on board with the changes that need to happen. Here’s where the public are at at.

By
Luke Murphy
15 November 2021

This is an article from the fourth issue of the New Economics Zine. You can read the full issue here.
Last month the government released its Net Zero Strategy – the long-awaited plan for reducing the UK’s emissions and tackling the climate crisis. The strategy talks of the government’s intention to ​“go with

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Is our digital economy breeding misogyny?
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Debbie Ging

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
12 November 2021

In August this year Jake Davison, a 22-year-old from Plymouth, went on a shooting rampage that left six dead, including his mother and himself. In the aftermath it emerged that Davison had been a member of ​‘incel’ forums online. He’s not the first mass shooter to have links to online groups espousing extreme hatred of women. Since Elliot Rodger killed six people in California in

Blog
Earth, wind and fire
After the smashing of the miners’ strike of the 1980s and the many mine and factory closures since, it’s no wonder that fossil-fuel workers are sceptical about plans for a green industrial revolution.

By
Rebekah Diski
12 November 2021

This is an article from the fourth issue of the New Economics Zine. You can read the full issue here.
Last month, over 500 workers at the GKN car factory in Birmingham voted to strike following news that Melrose, GKN’s owner, planned to close their plant and move jobs overseas. Strike

Blog
You can’t level up without a Green New Deal
Our government wants to be known for two things: levelling up, and fighting the climate crisis. But they don’t really understand how the two are connected.

By
Miatta Fahnbulleh
10 November 2021

This is an article from the fourth issue of the New Economics Zine. You can read the full issue here.‘Levelling up’ is this government’s favourite phrase. It formed the central pillar of Boris Johnson’s recent Tory Party conference speech. Many of us hoped that by the end of it, we would be clearer about

Blog
Babies and border controls
Barriers to childcare leave parents and children with no recourse to public funds isolated and destitute – we need free childcare for all

By
Miranda Hall, Beya Khaldi
09 November 2021

In 1997, Tony Blair promised to abolish child poverty within a generation. By opening a Sure Start Childcare Centre in every community, the government pledged to ​“give every child the best possible start in life.” Almost a generation later, austerity and marketisation have made it harder than ever for low-income

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Trans liberation
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Nim Ralph

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
05 November 2021

If you read mainstream media coverage of the issues facing transgender people in the UK, you’ll see a lot of fevered discussion of pronouns, bathroom access, and confusing legislation like the Gender Recognition Act. The media tells one story — but the other side of the coin is that half of trans people in the UK are unemployed and one in four have experienced direct healthcare discrimination.
When we focus on

Blog
Protecting planet from finance while protecting finance from itself
Time to keep 1.5 ºC alive is running out – our regulators must act with urgency matching this reality

By
Lukasz Krebel
05 November 2021

As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference, an important – if obscure to most – announcement on financial regulation by the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) went rather under the radar. Last week, the PRA announced it will consider whether it should change its regulatory capital framework,

Publications
Shorter working week newsletter 9
European Network for the Fair Sharing of Working Time

04 November 2021

Download the newsletter

The newsletter is published every few months and captures the latest, most exciting developments in working-time reduction from across Europe. 
It is produced by the New Economics Foundation (UK), and is coordinated by ATTAC (Germany – Group ArbeitFAIRTeilen) and Réseau Roosevelt (France). It is supported by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Brussels Office and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
If

Publications
The social case for nature
A case study from Benacre-Kessingland, Suffolk

By
Alex Chapman, Jasmeet Phagoora
04 November 2021

Download the report

The UK government has issued new guidance on project design and appraisal to capture a more rounded picture of the impacts of public projects on social inequity. In doing so, the government hopes to ensure that public investment maximises its contribution to its ​‘levelling-up’ and climate change mitigation

Blog
We can’t level up without restoring nature
Investing in our natural spaces can rejuvenate degraded ecosystems and held-back communities

By
Alex Chapman
04 November 2021

The government’s favourite term, ​‘levelling up’, contains little meaning – just enough to be politically useful, but not enough to support any real plan. At NEF, we investigated the role of nature in levelling up, through a case study in the Suffolk village of Kessingland. Like many of the UK’s struggling coastal areas, when it comes to their health, wealth or income,

Publications
The New Economics Zine
Issue 4: Is a greener world possible?

02 November 2021

Download the issue

Over the last few years there’s been a transformation in how the public thinks and talks about the climate crisis. Thanks to the work of a new wave of activists, spearheaded by the student climate strikers, it seems like the British public and politicians are finally waking up to the dangers of our addiction to fossil fuels. But mainstream attention is on all the wrong things.
After a summer of wildfires in the western US, floods in