The climate crisis is perhaps the most pressing issue of intergenerational fairness. Future generations’ right to a liveable, breathable, sustainable planet is absolutely paramount. Nothing short of radical action to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of the changing climate will be enough to guarantee we pass on a healthy planet to the generations who will inhabit it after us.
Climate crisis campaigns
A climate plea for future generations
There can be nothing more vital and pressing than preserving the health and sustainability of our planet. We have a collective responsibility to pass on a healthy planet to the generations who inherit the world after we are gone. We are in serious danger now of failing to fulfil that responsibility. We know about the… Read more »
While older generations were able to purchase homes for three or four times their annual income, today people looking to buy a home will typically be expected to pay seven or eight times their annual income. It’s not just for younger generations trying to get on the housing market that this intergenerational unfairness is an issue. For many younger people, renting is the only alternative, and house price inflation means millions of young people are paying billions of pounds in rent every year to landlords who benefited from being able to afford to buy a home.
Housing campaigns
Build the homes we need
Housing is the most visible form of intergenerational unfairness in the UK today. While older generations were able to buy houses when prices were low and have seen those values explode, today’s younger generations face house prices of more than 12 times average incomes in London and over 7 times average incomes outside London. It… Read more »
For previous generations, attending university was free or cheap. Now, UK university students can expect to be tens of thousands of pounds in debt after they graduate. Depending on their income, that debt can grow via exorbitant interest rates faster than they are able to pay it off. Repaying student debt is effectively a graduate tax, adding several per cent to the tax that graduates are expected to pay, not because their income is great or they have amassed significant wealth, but simply because they have been to university. We think that is wrong and unfair.
Students campaigns
Parents Against Student Debt
Since 2012, students have had to swallow eye-watering tuition fees and sky-high interest rates on their loans, leaving many of them with around £50,000 of debt that they will have to pay back over the next 30 years. From September 2023, the loan term has been extended by another decade for 40 years. That means… Read more »
Student debt
Cost-of-living crisis forgotten Students are suffering from a cost-of-living crisis as much as the rest of the population yet they have been forgotten by policymakers. While fees have been frozen at £9,250, student maintenance loans have risen by just 2.5% in 2024/25 after a derisory 2.8% in 2023/24, which is well below the current rate… Read more »
Many young people are underrepresented, underpaid, overcharged and overworked. We think young people deserve better outcomes. To achieve this we need to rewrite the intergenerational contract and change how decisions are made to ensure that young people's opportunities and the rights of future generations are put front and centre.
Young people campaigns
Votes at 16
We at the Intergenerational Foundation have been supportive of Votes for 16- and 17-year-olds for a long time. We hope you will join us in celebrating the new government’s manifesto pledge to extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds in all elections. Giving the right to vote to young people aged 16 and 17 is… Read more »