The loneliness epidemic: mental health, young people and intergenerational inequality

Loneliness is the theme of this year’s #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek. Liz Emerson, IF Co-founder, lays out IF’s research into young people’s loneliness and explains why greater investment in earlier mental health interventions is needed. A decade in the making For more than a decade the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) has researched the plight of young people. In 9… Read more »

Should Housing Association tenants have the right to buy?

Recent reports have suggested that the UK government is considering an extension of the Right to Buy to housing association homes. IF Co-Founder Angus Hanton considers how this would affect the UK’s already-skewed housing market, how it would interact with the housing crisis and how it might impact future generations in the UK. The sale… Read more »

Local elections – will you vote?

Many areas of the England, Scotland and Wales will have local elections tomorrow, 5th May. With turnout historically very low, particularly among younger people, Liz Emerson, IF Co-founder, investigates what issues younger generations can influence locally and why voting locally matters. What does your local councillor do? Local councils are responsible for a wide range… Read more »

Earth Day 2022: time for urgency

It is Earth Day this week. The theme for the 52nd anniversary of the annual event supporting the global environmental movement is “Invest in Our Planet”. Alec Haglund, IF researcher, writes about the need for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis, which is the most pressing intergenerational justice issue facing younger and future generations.… Read more »

Wellbeing of Future Generations: How narratives of intergenerational fairness change the debate

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, if passed, will make a significant contribution to the protection of the rights of future generations. The passing of the bill is dependent on several factors, one of which being how intergenerational fairness is framed in debate. IF Student Intern, Hanna Burt, discusses the use of intergenerational fairness as… Read more »

Spring Statement: compounding the cost of living crisis for young people

On March 23, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, delivered his Spring Statement to Parliament, announcing a number of measures intended to alleviate the cost of living crisis. However, IF Co-Founder, Angus Hanton, argues that this package, combined with the government’s longstanding economic and fiscal policies, will do very little to solve the cost of… Read more »

A once in a lifetime chance to protect the world’s seas for future generations

Humans have been fishing the seas and travelling the oceans for over 40,000 years. In this blog, Liz Emerson, IF Co-founder, explains what action is being taken to protect our seas and oceans today for future generations. United Nations Conference From the 7 to 18 March 2022, the United Nations (UN) is convening the fourth… Read more »

Regressive student finance plans will punish low and middle earners the most

The upcoming changes to the student loan system is yet another stealth tax on young people, which will hit middle-income and low-income graduates the hardest. In the press release, the government argues that these changes will ensure that the problem is not “passed on to future generations”, but the reality is quite the opposite. In… Read more »

Anti-democratic clauses in trade deals are barriers to intergenerational environmental justice

Part of the concept of intergenerational justice is that young people must be able to have a say in policy-making. Democratic systems must allow for their citizens to exert agency over economic and political processes in the first place, otherwise there would be no vehicle for translating the will of (young) people into action and… Read more »

Two years of COVID-19: the pandemic, young people and what next?

Almost two years have passed since COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency by the WHO. IF’s digital campaigns officer Liam Hill analyses how the pandemic, the lockdowns and other restrictions have affected young people in the UK, and asks what can be done to address the issues they face. Two years of turmoil It… Read more »