The Commission was a two-year inquiry, established in the autumn of 2016 to examine the challenges facing the UK economy. The Commission found that the UK economy is not working. It no longer delivers rising living standards for much of the population. Average earnings have stagnated for more than a decade – even while economic growth has occurred. Too many people are in insecure jobs with young people set to be poorer than their parents, and the nations and regions of the UK are diverging. As more and more people feel economically disenfranchised, the political consequences are being felt across society.

The UK economy needs fundamental reform. Many of the problems of the UK economy go back 30 years or more: they will not be addressed by incremental change. Neither can we seek to redress inequality through redistribution: the economy must be ‘hard-wired’ for justice. This does not have to be at the expense of prosperity, as a fairer economy is a stronger economy. In setting out how we can achieve both prosperity and justice, the Commission’s ten-point plan for reform offers the potential for the most significant change in economic policy in a generation.  

The Centre for Economic Justice is working to deepen and broaden the research, while continuing to sustain the arguments of the Commission and push for change.

Economic change is not simple; there are no ‘silver bullets’ or magical solutions to remedy deep and longstanding problems. We hope that we can spark a national conversation on why we need a change of direction, and what that direction should be. We can bridge the gap between the country we are and the country we would like to be. The Centre for Economic Justice to play a leading role in this task.