News
Repayment Repression: The shift from public investment to private burden in higher education funding
Summary England’s higher education funding system has been transformed over the past 20 years. While public debate has focused on tuition fees, interest rates and outstanding loan balances, this report finds that the more fundamental change has been the gradual withdrawal of the state’s contribution to higher education. This report tracks the shifting burden of […]
9 Aug 2026
More >
Fixing Britain’s Public Sector Pensions: Lessons from abroad
Summary The UK’s public sector pension system is expensive and intergenerationally unfair. Most public sector workers are entitled to a defined benefit pension upon retirement. This means the value of their pension is guaranteed in their contract. In the vast majority of cases, these pensions schemes are unfunded. There are no real assets set aside […]
30 Jun 2026
More >
Time to unlock: Why it’s time to reform the triple lock on the State Pension
The triple lock ensures that the weekly rate of the State Pension increases each year by the highest of average earnings growth, inflation, or 2.5 per cent. When it was introduced in 2011, it was originally intended to modestly improve the adequacy of retirement incomes. This report examines the impact of the triple lock on […]
17 May 2026
More >
Towards intergenerational fairness in local government: An intergenerational impact assessment for local councils
How can we make decisions that better protect the long term? IF’s latest report outlines how intergenerational impact assessments can be introduced into local government. Charlie Hicks, former elected Champion for Future Generations and councillor for Oxfordshire County Council, provides the foreword to the report. IF presents a temporal intergenerational impact assessment tool that combines democratic […]
10 Jun 2025
More >
A growing divide: Two decades of intergenerational unfairness
IF’s latest report provides a comprehensive assessment of how conditions for young people in the UK have evolved over the past two decades. It brings together data and analysis across eight core policy areas: the labour market; housing; higher education; public services; wealth and expenditure; health; politics; and environmental sustainability. Out of the eight […]
5 Jun 2025
More >
Blowing the budget: Why the young have to spend more than the old on essentials
This report investigates spending power across the generations and finds that under-30s’ households: Have to dedicate the higher proportion of their total weekly expenditure to essentials Essential items take up 70% of their budget – a 16% increase compared to 2002/3 The bottom quintile of under-30s have on average have to dedicate 77% of […]
13 Nov 2024
More >
Locked out: Intergenerational unfairness in the housing market
This June 2024 report analyses local authority areas (LAs) by age and finds that the housing crisis is greatest in those areas where more young people live. The report calls on political candidates in the General Election to pledge to deliver new housing for their younger constituents. Policy recommendations include: Fund and roll out Housing […]
1 Jul 2024
More >
Tax wealth to help the young: The intergenerational fairness case for a wealth tax
Why do political parties shy away from taxing wealth in the UK when, according to this report, at least £18 billion could be raised each year if governments introduced a moderate wealth tax that would affect just 1% of the population? Where taxes come from is increasingly an intergenerational fairness issue. This research demonstrates […]
18 Jan 2024
More >
No country for young people: The problems of accelerating rural-urban age segregation
Old and young are living further apart This report investigated the profound changes in where older and younger people live in England and Wales over the past 20 years mean. It compares Census data from 2001, 2011 and 2021: Rural areas have aged more than twice as fast as urban areas Areas where over-50s […]
11 Aug 2023
More >
Play fair: Equalising the taxation of earned and unearned income
This report explains how the government could more fairly tax earned and unearned income: The current UK tax regime strongly favours unearned income over earned income. This has led to a tax system that is both unfair and inefficient. It also means that the young and those people who receive their income from employment pay […]
3 Aug 2023
More >