New Index Shows British Economy Plummeting And Lacking Resilience To Future Shocks

(MENAFN- Pressat) The Democracy Collaborative's UK version of its Index of Systemic Trends published this Friday, 29 May 2026, reveals how the British economy is failing on all metrics and with inadequate responses by establishment political parties.

The UK Index of Systemic Trends is a dashboard charting the health of Britain's political economy across indicators including economic growth, inequality, poverty, financialisation, life expectancy, productivity, environmental degradation and trust in government.

It shows that Britain's economic growth is neither likely, nor sufficient for the challenges the future presents. Some of these findings include:

Britain has experienced a significant decline in economic growth since the 1970s (from 2015 to 2024, average growth was just 0.8% per capita) Child poverty is on the rise (in 2023, 30.5% of children lived in poverty - a 122.6% increase from 1970) Housing costs are at their highest in 50 years (in 2023, private renters paid around 28.1% of their income on housing - a 198.9% rise since 1970) Investment is rapidly declining (in 2024, total public and private investment amounted to around 17.4% of GDP, a 34.1% decline from 1976) Regional inequality is staggering (somebody living in London lives in an economy the equivalent of Switzerland, whilst for someone in the East Midlands it's Poland)

The Democracy Collaborative President Joe Guinan says:

"The UK Index of Systemic Trends gathers in one place the data in support of a radically disruptive contention-that Britain is not ungovernable but misgoverned, based on the attachment of the political class to a half-century-old economic model that serves the few at the expense of the many. Use this Index to measure the actual commitments of politicians promising to do things differently.”

UK Index of Systemic Trends leading author Prof. Howard Reed says:

"For the first time in the UK, the Index of Systemic Trends sets out the full extent of the economic and social crisis that the UK finds itself in after five decades of Thatcherite and post-Thatcherite policies. Today, as in the 1970s, there is a widespread feeling that Britain is in a very difficult place economically. The Index shows that on a whole range of indicators including economic growth, earnings growth and inequality, Britain is in fact doing a lot worse than it was the last time these arguments were raised."

Notes

1) You can find a PDF version of the Index attached.

2) The authors of the Index are:

Prof. Howard Reed, Senior Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative and Professor (Practice) of Public Policy at Northumbria University

Joe Guinan, President of The Democracy Collaborative

Neil McInroy, Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative

Thomas Hanna, Vice President of Research and Policy at The Democracy Collaborative

3) The website for the Index will go live on Friday, 29 May 2026

4) The launch event will take place the following Friday, 5 June 2026, at Northumbria University, in Newcastle.

5) The Democracy Collaborative is a think-do-tank and research laboratory for the democratic economy and the originator of the Community Wealth Building economic development model.

ENDS

For more information, high res. images, and interview requests please contact

Joana Ramiro - [email protected] / 07786697369

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