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The Bank of England needs to keep moving with interest rate cuts
Over recent years, interest rate rises have led to further and very steep rises in costs for households and firms. It has been the TUC’s consistent view that rates have risen too high and have remained elevated for too long.
Autumn Budget: a plan to start rebuilding Britain
In yesterday’s far-reaching Autumn Budget, Rachel Reeves acted decisively to deliver an economy that works for working people.
Another month without growth shows our recovery remains fragile
GDP figures today and the jobs data yesterday suggest the recovery of the UK economy remains fragile.
The worst government for growth in modern times
After three successive positive months for growth, April GDP came in at zero.
Labour market figures: the Conservatives have failed working people
Today’s jobs data again reinforced how badly working people have been failed over the last 14 years. Unemployment was up, long term sickness hit a new record and real pay has still not advanced from 2008 levels in real terms.
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over
Today CPI inflation figure for April fell to 2.3 per cent from 3.2 per cent in March.
Conservative policies mean UK has had worst inflation and growth outcomes in the G7
The outcomes once again show conservative government policies as seriously wrongheaded. While the coming monthly figures are likely to show inflation back at target, across the two years the UK has paid a much higher price than other countries in terms of growth.
Rapid deterioration in the Labour market
New figures today showed unemployment rising sharply by 166,000 on the quarter to 1,486,000. The unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to 4.3 per cent.
Doubling down on the 'plan' that has failed growth
Dishonestly claiming a ‘Budget for long-term growth’, the Chancellor today doubled down on the failed Tory approach of the last 14 years. From 2010 to 2024 UK economic growth has averaged 1.5 per cent a year, the worse outcome for a government since the great depression, and a third below the long-term average of 2.4 per cent.
The OBR’s evidence is clear: the Autumn Statement has done nothing to end the living standards and growth crises
As a result of the autumn statement, our real pay crisis is intensified and now expected to last 20 years. Politically charged National Insurance cut makes the smallest dent in the worse squeeze on household incomes since the 1950s, and while the Chancellor has enjoyed higher revenues, he has chosen to play austerity politics rather than back public services on the brink.
Budget 2023 – was that it?
A Budget with no ambition, more of the same at best, and basically ignoring the most pressing problems facing the UK.
Pay up, chancellor – or the doom loop will never end
This year’s Budget day will see teachers and university staff, civil servants and rail workers out on strike for better pay. The government has to learn that cuts are opposed to economic growth, and the economy will only recover when workers have money and spend it.
Working people take the hit for Tory economic failure
TUC reaction to Autumn Statement 2022. Until we have a government that has a serious plan to put work before wealth, we look set to remain trapped in the doom loop of austerity politics.
Failed Trussonomics out. Failed austerity and City bankers back in.
There is another way to deliver an economy that works for working people, but the government couldn’t be further from it,
Workers unite to resist farcical economic policy
Once more workers must face not only being poorer but also a brutal recession as economic policy degenerates into farce.
The Chancellor must use the spring statement to help workers facing falling wages and soaring bills
The Chancellor needs to learn the lessons of the pandemic, and act now to support workers from threats beyond their control. That’s the best way to protect working families and the economy.
Beyond the GDP headlines, alarms ring as households cut back
Real wages are plummeting whilst the cost of living soars; a toxic combination that is hitting economic demand and weakening our recovery from the pandemic.
Bank of England are raising interest rates because of imagined wages growth
The Bank of England offered an increasingly bleak view of the economy.
Headline GDP figures flatter fading recovery
Workers bracing themselves for the predicted wage squeeze, now have to confront the likelihood that the economy was even weaker than expected just a fortnight ago.
A minimum wage rise isn’t enough to secure decent pay across the economy
If we want a high pay economy, there’s much more this Spending Review needs to do.
Why we shouldn’t be worried about inflation right now
Trade unions care about inflation - nobody wants pay increases written off by higher prices. But we care about other things too.
Labour internationalism begins at home
The global financial crisis, recession and subsequent austerity policies amount not only to a disastrous failure of policy but also of economic thinking.
Workers lose as the Chancellor gambles on recovery
The Chancellor made a dangerous bet on the economy bouncing back on its own, when he should have acted to create jobs.
GDP and the pandemic in 2020
The TUC have supported the measures to protect health and the measures taken to limit the financial impact on workers and their families, but much more needs to be done.
Time for certainty on worker protection as unemployment rises fast
The government must end the drip feed of worker and business protection, and announce the extension of the furlough scheme, including for the self-employed, to the end of the year.
“Heightened policy activism” is needed to address a global unemployment crisis
New forecasts showed unemployment rising by 13 million across advanced economies. The OECD calls for “heightened policy activism” to address this challenge: this must mean a renewed emphasis on spending to get us out of recession and deliver decent work.
A spending review to level down Britain
For all ministers’ talk of levelling up, this spending review will level down Britain, hit key workers’ pay and break the government's promises to the lowest paid.
Ten steps for a Spending Review to create decent jobs
The spending review is a big chance for the Chancellor to think about how we get our economy back on track. With redundancies in the latest quarter at the highest on record, attention must be shifted decisively to delivering decent jobs.
Union leaders call for RPI to be renewed, not scrapped
The general secretaries of Britain’s largest unions have issued a joint statement calling on the government not to scrap the RPI measure of inflation.
