Standard Issue: Policies to raise living standards

The US-Israeli war on Iran has prompted yet another shock to the budgets of British households, with potentially dire consequences for living standards. This is the second such shock in five years; but the cost-of-living crisis has been decades in the making. In this collection, policymakers and experts explore a variety of areas in which people need support and set out policies for consideration by the government.

Coedited by Luke Murphy, the Labour MP for Basingstoke, the pamphlet also explores the centrality of living standards to Labour’s offer to the electorate, current public opinion, and the lessons Labour can learn from the Democratic party’s loss in the last US presidential election.

Note: chapter 4 was subject to two minor revisions between the printed and online versions. The changes added two examples of government labour market policy on p18 and clarified the scope of the proposed jobs guarantee on p19.