Housing wealth inequality *within* generations is growing

As ever, John Burn-Murdoch leaves me wondering “why didn’t I make that chart?”

In the talk about the lucky half getting parental help remember: most get little but a few get a lot! (see Institute for Fiscal Studies chart from me & Bee Boileau)

Going through some old Budget documents (for work, promise) and it's quite funny being able to pinpoint the moment at which the Treasury discovered WordArt (November 1996), needlessly 3-D bar charts (July 1998), and the ability to add a pointless shadow to pie charts (March 1999)

NEW: Sure Start, England’s first large programme to provide holistic support to families with children under five, greatly improved disadvantaged children’s GCSE results.

Read Nick Ridpath Sarah Cattan Pedro Carneiro’s report, funded by Nuffield Foundation: ifs.org.uk/publications/s…

Fabulous new resource on the Institute for Fiscal Studies site here, with a whole load of interactive charts showing what's happened to inequality, living standards and poverty in the UK (with all data available to download).

ifs.org.uk/living-standar…

Useful thread from Max on why we might want to be a little bit careful about going from the left-hand chart to the right-hand chart. We've changed the definition of what it means to be on an NHS waiting list. Direct comparisons across time are hard as a result.

Given that successive governments have done nothing to challenge voters' misconception that National Insurance 'pays for' the NHS and state pensions, and have instead used it as political cover for repeated NICs hikes, this reaction feels a lot like chickens coming home to roost.

This is precisely why hoping that public service productivity improvements will unlock tens of billions seem a bit fanciful.

If (and it is an if) we find a way to boost e.g. hospital productivity, it's more likely to result in service improvements rather than lower spending.