Make way, older people, for Starmer's quiet revolution

During their 14 years in power, the Conservatives prioritised older people over younger adults to appeal to their core vote. The average pensioner household is now better off after housing costs than the average working one across most income levels.

- ANDREW GRICE

Tax and benefit changes since 2010 left non-pensioners more than £2,200 a year worse off on average, while pensioners are less than £200 a year worse off. Last year, Keir Starmer promised to conserve what he called “the careful bond between this generation and the next”.

Ministers are not shouting their rebalancing act from the rooftops – they don’t want to alienate the oldies – but their priorities in their first four weeks in office reveal their generation game. The huge housebuilding programme and legislation in the King’s Speech to protect renters are long overdue. A key, though unstated, goal is to boost pay. “Driving up wages will be good for the economy,” one Starmer adviser told me.

This partly explains Rachel Reeves’s decision to approve above-inflation pay awards for public sector workers. On social care, the priority is raising the pay of care workers rather than protecting baby boomers’ assets. Another priority is Labour’s package of workplace rights, though again ministers haven’t trumpeted it yet.