UK living standards to stagnate even after Covid crisis fades, warns thinktank

Resolution Foundation analysis of budget warns real earnings will fall and barely rise in next four years

The real earnings of UK workers will fall this year and remain stagnant after that despite a strong economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to analysis of the budget that suggests the government will oversee one of the worst periods for UK living standards on record.

Incomes will lag behind inflation during 2021-22 - meaning living standards will drop - and will only rise by an average of 0.3% annually over the course of the next four years, according to the Resolution Foundation, an independent thinktank.