Inquiry launches to explore the economic challenges ahead

An independent inquiry has been launched to examine the economic changes that the UK is going through, and start a national conversation about what this means for people, places and firms.

The Economy 2030 Inquiry is a three-year project to explore the unprecedented economic challenges the country is facing.

It will be conducted by the Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE), supported by a £1.8m grant from the Nuffield Foundation.

The backdrop to the inquiry is a decade bookended by two ‘once-in-a-generation’ economic crises, a slump in productivity and stagnating living standards.

While the immediate focus is understandably on the nature of the recovery from Covid-19, the reshaping of the UK’s economy will if anything be more lastingly driven by our emergence from the EU, transitions towards a Net Zero future, predictable demographic shifts, and unpredictable technological change.

The work of the inquiry will be carried out by researchers at the Resolution Foundation and the LSE, with the support of an advisory board. It will include a major work programme examining the lived experience of the UK economy from the perspective of workers, consumers and citizens. This will see surveys, focus groups and citizens’ juries informing the project throughout its life.

A final report will be delivered in Summer 2023. 

‘As vaccines are rolled out, debates are turning to how to recover well from Covid-19 and the deepest downturn for 300 years it created,’ said Resolution Foundation chief executive, Torsten Bell.

‘While crucial, this is only part of the task ahead of us. The UK is poised for a decade of unprecedented economic change as it not only emerges from the pandemic, but also finds its post-Brexit place in the world, and ramps up its zero-carbon transition.

‘Together with technological and demographic change, these shifts pose fundamental questions about our economy at a time when the country lacks a clear sense of its path to prosperity. Successfully navigating the 2020s requires both a better understanding of what the country is going through, and a proper plan to shape the UK’s economic future. These are the tasks the Economy 2030 Inquiry will address.’

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