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In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Franz Buscha and Matt Dickson look back at more of their favourite episodes from 2020, discussing the research they found most interesting from their guests over the last year.

In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Franz Buscha and Matt Dickson look back at some of their favourite episodes from 2020, highlighting the things they found most interesting about the research shared by a selection of different guests.

Adam Cox is joined by Max Halliwell from Mitsubishi Electric to discuss how the heating industry needs to change in order to aid the UK in becoming carbon neutral by 2050. They talk about heat pumps, how exactly these work and the grant opportunities out there for those who want to make their homes more sustainable. They delve into what needs to change in the UK’s mindsets in order to truly make an impact in the UK when it comes to heating our homes.

This week, a new in-depth report from the Wealth Tax Commission recommended a one-off 'wealth tax' on the richest households rather than hiking taxes for the masses. It comes as the national debt has spiralled this year as the Government spent more than £280billion tackling the pandemic and its financial fallout, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak claiming the 'economic emergency' has only just begun. How would it work, could it be a good idea and how unpopular would it prove? Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a look. Elsewhere, millions of mortgage payment holidays have been handed out since March - an agreement with lenders to help homeowners during the coronavirus crisis. But for one couple who extended the payment holiday, it turned into a credit report headache when they looked to downsize. In the property market, a new report suggests that stamp duty savings are now being wiped out by house price gains in recent months. Should investors run to the hills if one of the companies that you are invested in or are tempted by has a big pension scheme? And lastly, we give yet another update on the port fiasco in Britain, with the perfect storm of coronavirus, Brexit and Christmas.

In the midst of the second COVID-related national lockdown for England, this episode of Policy Matters sees hosts Franz Buscha and Matt Dickson revisit some of the questions that were being asked in the first episode recorded under lockdown restrictions back in April. They start with some personal reflections on what life has been like juggling working-from-home and home-schooling over the months since the pandemic began, and thinking about the impact that the disruptions to education will have on school-aged children and inequality. Franz and Matt then discuss some of the academic research related to the pandemic; highlighting in particular the unintended consequences of policies like the “Eat out to help out” scheme, and considering the different ways in which the pandemic has affected the self-employed. The programme ends with a look ahead at some of the longer-term effects this experience might have on birth-rates and the implications these may have, and also considers what positive policy lessons could be taken forward and acted upon in the future.

Many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been unprecedented – including the extent to which it has forced the UK population to engage with statistics. This has been a challenge for Government, and it has not always gone well. However, with 190 policies enacted in the first six months of the pandemic - costing around £210 bn - it was never going to be easy. We talk to Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), on lessons that can be learnt from the last 9 months. This matters enormously, as a recent global survey identifies a clear relationship between individuals’ trust in information from government and the likelihood of engaging with vaccination programmes.

This month we launched The WealthiHer 2020 report “The Changing Faces of Women’s Wealth” which gives valuable insights into women’s and men’s financial confidence, attitudes to and needs around money, workplaces and equality, both in the UK and Asia. It is clear Covid-19 has had a major impact and nowhere was this truer, than for women and their responsibilities to family, job security and financial prosperity. Women are 1.8 times more likely to have lost their jobs or quit, compared to men. The Institute of Fiscal Studies found that women in the UK are working 156 more hours a month than their partners in support of care of the family or the household; and the gender pay gap has shifted back 60 years as a result of the crisis. In this episode, Tamara Gillan is joined by Michelle King: world-renowned equality expert who has led the charge on strategy for UN Women and Netflix Inclusion. Michelle is armed with more than 16 years’ research and a deep understanding of the invisible barriers that hold women back at work, and how we need to face up to these and collaboratively fix workplaces, not women. Michelle has also just joined us as the MD of WealthiHer female leadership Academy.

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought about a huge shift in the way we all live our daily lives – not least the fact that since March of this year, whoever has been able to has been working remotely. But what does this mean for the role of the physical office as we know it? Recorded just before the government’s latest announcement of a second lockdown in England (but still extremely pertinent), Vicky Sayers is joined by Brandon Hollihan: co-founder of property management company, Castleforge Partners. He shares his experience of working from home and advocates for the importance of the office within business culture.

Adam Cox is joined by CEO of Voneus, Steven Leighton, to discuss how those working in rural communities have been affected by lockdown; and how lack of internet access can affect the ability to work remotely or home-school successfully. They delve into the gigabit scheme, how it aims to support those living in rural areas, and the importance of internet access in the modern day.

In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Matt Dickson and Franz Buscha talk to Martha Bloom, a researcher at the Science Policy Research Institute at the University of Sussex. Martha recently wrote a report examining the economic returns to creative arts degrees, the types of employment these graduates go on to and the motivations of those who undertake higher level creative education. Franz, Matt and Martha begin by discussing the difficulties facing the creative industries in the post-pandemic world, yet how the crisis has also highlighted the importance of these industries for the wellbeing of the nation. Martha then explains the ways in which creative arts graduates contribute to the economy both within the creative industries and more broadly, what her report reveals about their motivations and the benefits that they enjoy across a range of measures. The discussion then goes on to consider a related report co-authored by Franz and Matt, which examines the earnings and employment returns to different postgraduate degrees. This conversation again highlights the importance of skills and vocations that might not be highly paid but provide vital inputs into the economy and public life, and the danger of judging the value of education purely in terms of earnings.