Shaping equality and fairness after the recession
This report summarises the discussion which took place at two seminars organised by the Equality and Diversity Forum in late 2009 to discuss the implications of the recession for equality and social justice in the UK. The seminars were designed to enable participants from government, NGOs, business, academia and think tanks to debate a range of issues. These included: ? relative levels of remuneration across different sectors of the economy; ? the scale of economic inequality in the UK and how this compares with other developed countries; ? the impact of relative inequality on social cohesion, health, crime and other social outcomes; ? the degree of transparency and regulation of financial and other markets; ? the balance of the fiscal regime; ? the role of public and private services, including the role of the state in a market economy; ? the relative share of responsibility for the crisis between financial institutions, regulators, government and individuals; and ? the implications of the crisis for social, community and individual values, including attitudes to consumption and the good life.