Wealth Inequality Workshop

Last week saw us at the Nuffield Foundation for our one-day workshop, ‘What do we know about wealth inequality in the UK?’

The workshop covered three key themes: what do we already know, what should we be doing, and what do we think is going to happen. We invited policy-makers, journalists, politicians, think tanks, and academics working in the broad area of wealth inequality, and invited speakers and panel members to discuss each theme throughout the day. The aim was very much

We were honoured to have two keynotes – first, at lunchtime, Paul Johnson of the IFS, and then to close, Ed Miliband MP – as well as experts from both academia and the world of policy.

One of the workshop’s key aims was to pinpoint ways we can tackle the problem of wealth inequality, not just to see where we are, but where we could be at the end of the project. Ben Ansell, WEALTHPOL’s PI, considered the event a success:

“The day was hugely helpful in painting a ‘state of the art’ picture of what we currently know about wealth inequality in the UK. While there was consensus that wealth inequality was rising, participants also noted that there is a lack of political agreement on what types of policies might be effective and the political unpopularity of many existing measures such as inheritance taxation. We hope to use this event as a launchpad to provide new answers. As our ERC project moves forward, the WEALTHPOL team will bring together a wide range of data to grapple with these questions.”

We would like to thank both the Nuffield Foundation for hosting us and the Nuffield College Politics group for sponsoring the day.

It is hoped that all those who attended the day will follow the project through. Although our next major event will not be for some time, we are keen to collaborate and discuss wealth inequality and our research throughout the project’s lifetime and beyond.