Towards a more equal society?

John Hills (1954-2020) was Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy and Co-Director of the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics. He wrote extensively on inequality, public policy and the welfare state. He was a member of the Pensions Commission and Chair of the National Equality Panel for the Labour government and led a review of the measurement of fuel poverty for the Coalition government. He was knighted in 2013 for services to the development of social policy.Tom Sefton was formerly a research fellow at CASE, and now works for the Church Urban Fund. Kitty Stewart is a lecturer in social policy at LSE and a research associate at CASE.

• Introduction ~ Kitty Stewart, Tom Sefton and John Hills; Part One: Dimensions of policy outcomes: Poverty, inequality and redistribution ~ Tom Sefton, John Hills and Holly Sutherland; 'A scar on the soul of Britain': child poverty and disadvantage under New Labour ~ Kitty Stewart; Education: New Labour's top priority ~ Ruth Lupton, Natalie Heath, Emma Salter; More equal working lives? An assessment of New Labour policies ~ Abigail McKnight; New Labour and unequal neighbourhoods ~ Anne Power; Health inequalities: a persistent problem ~ Franco Sassi; Pensions and income security in later life ~ Maria Evandrou and Jane Falkingham; Ethnic inequalities: another ten years of the same? ~ Coretta Phillips; Migration, migrants and inequality ~ Jill Rutter and Maria Latorre; Part Two: Cross-cutting issues: Moving in the right direction? Public attitudes to poverty, inequality and redistribution ~ Tom Sefton; Inequality and the devolved administrations: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ~ Tania Burchardt and Holly Holder; Poverty, inequality and child well-being in international context: still bottom of the pack? ~ Kitty Stewart; Part Three: The Equality and Human Rights Commission: a new point of departure in the battle against discrimination and disadvantage ~ Polly Vizard; Future pressures: intergenerational links, wealth, demography and sustainability ~ John Hills; Conclusions: Climbing every mountain or retreating from the foothills? ~ John Hills, Tom Sefton and Kitty Stewart.

"If you want a deep and even-handed project to rethink egalitarianism for the current age, turn to Towards a more equal society? ... The academics reporting in this volume have conducted painstaking statistical analysis. There are no cartoons, diverting vignettes or uplifting quotations. But the narrative - cautious, nuanced, understated - is all the more persuasive for that. If we want a fairer society, let us start with the facts." Richard Reeves, The Observer