{"id":89962,"date":"2026-02-12T08:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=89962"},"modified":"2026-02-12T08:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:04:20","slug":"growth-is-not-the-answer-relieving-poverty-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/12\/growth-is-not-the-answer-relieving-poverty-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Growth is not the answer: relieving poverty is"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/economy\/grossdomesticproductgdp\/bulletins\/gdpfirstquarterlyestimateuk\/latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Office for National Statistics<\/a> has reported this morning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UK real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased by 0.1% in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025, following a 0.1% increase in the previous quarter.<\/li>\n<li>GDP is estimated to be 1.0% higher in Quarter 4 2025, compared with the same quarter a year ago.<\/li>\n<li>In output terms, growth in the latest quarter was driven by an increase of 1.2% in production, while the construction sector fell by 2.1% and the services sector showed no growth.<\/li>\n<li>GDP is estimated to have increased by 1.3% annually in 2025, following growth of 1.1% in 2024.<\/li>\n<li>Real GDP per head is estimated to have fallen for the second consecutive quarter by 0.1%, but is up by 0.6% compared with the same quarter a year ago.<\/li>\n<li>Real GDP per head is estimated to have increased by 1.0% annually in 2025, following no growth in 2024.<\/li>\n<li>In line with the\u00a0National Accounts Revisions Policy, this bulletin includes revisions to data from Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 to Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025; growth to total aggregate real GDP has not been revised across these periods, however, there have been some revisions to underlying components.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/12\/the-neoliberal-democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have already noted this morning<\/a>, GDP growth is a dire measure of well-being, but our politicians continue to stick with it, nevertheless. Doing so, they reveal three things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They do not understand the harm a focus on GDP growth can actually deliver, the consequences of which we can see all around us, but to which they appear to be blind.<\/li>\n<li>They are hopeless at delivering growth, precisely because the harm it causes is now creating such extreme poverty, precarity, and insecurity that any prospects of growth are destroyed, but they are doing nothing to address those issues.<\/li>\n<li>We are stuck in a rut as a result, which is providing a breeding ground for resentment from which the only beneficiary is the far-right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When, of hwn, will they learn? We really do need a politics of care to break out of this, with a focus on alleviating poverty through the redistribution of wasted and even harmful wealth as its priority. Only then will we see this country get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Office for National Statistics has reported this morning: UK real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased by 0.1% in Quarter<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/12\/growth-is-not-the-answer-relieving-poverty-is\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,35,224,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-neoliberalism","category-politics-of-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89963,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89962\/revisions\/89963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}