Ms Susanne Rogers:

Very quickly on the demographic challenge we face, Japan and Italy are now at a stage where they have dropped below replacement rates. They are actively looking at the sorts of tax breaks and benefits they can put into households, but these measures are not working. It would be interesting to see which measures could actually make women have more babies. I am not too sure that an increase in my tax credit would be one of them. It is a matter of demographic change. Where there is growth, it is a result of inward migration. That is something that really has to be discussed as well.

To pick up on the issue of poverty, the survey on income and living conditions indicated that poverty reduced but deprivation went up. That is a concern. I will go back to the piece about growth, pushing for growth and looking at demographic changes and where we get growth. I have just finished reading Liam Byrne's book, The Inequality of Wealth. In it, he states, "lifting the income of the poorest share accelerates growth". The IMF has said that a 3% decrease in the Gini coefficient, which is the standard measure of inequality, boosts economic growth by 0.5% a year, while the OECD says that if inequality is increased by 3%, growth will slow by 0.35% a year for 25 years. We can have a conversation about growth, degrowth and slower growth but, in terms of seeking to fund my retirement, because at this rate I will be totally reliant on the State pension, will I be able to put three bars on the fire if I wish to do so? We need to get much more creative. Regarding the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, every time tax is mentioned, people immediately think of their wage slip. We need to be much more creative. We need to look at income gaps, but we also need to look at the wealth piece, which we tend not to concentrate on enough. I appreciate that will be for another committee, but it is a conversation we need to have.