Edelman Trust Barometer

Governance Watch - Issue 54

Governance Watch - Issue 54

Inequality 

OECD figures suggest that the UK has among the highest levels of income inequality in the European Union (as measured by the Gini coefficient), although income inequality is lower than in the United States, says a research briefing from the UK Parliament in March 2019. This week the think-tank the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) announced the IFS Deaton Review, a major five-year investigation into whether there is a systemic bias in the country towards inequality. It has enormous implications for our thinking on a wide range of things, from public policy to societal behaviour and to the design of corporate governance and attitude to corporate behaviour.

Governance Watch - Issue 52

Governance Watch - Issue 52

Change and Evolution

Beware the Ides of March, as they can prove to be treacherous. At a time when Britain appears ever more deeply mired in political stasis over the Brexit vote, we have also seen a steady roll-out of government reforms to improve corporate governance and the running of our businesses. The aim is to restore trust in business and its place in society, although ironically the Edelman Trust Barometer of 2019 shows that the British public trusts business far more than it trusts the government – as mentioned in the last Governance Watch.

If these reforms are now seen not to deliver real change, the threads of that trust will scatter on the chilly wind.