What is the economy for? In debates about budgets, success is often measured through economic growth, borrowing, and inflation. But from a human rights perspective, the fundamental question is whether our economy enables everyone to live with dignity and enjoy their rights.
Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), including the rights to adequate housing, food, health, social security, and decent work, provide a framework for answering this question. They establish that the conditions people need to live well are not privileges to be distributed according to wealth, but human rights that governments have a responsibility to realise.
Yet an economic system that prioritises growth over wellbeing risks deepening inequality and insecurity. Poverty and rights violations are not experienced equally, with discrimination and structural disadvantage leaving some communities facing greater barriers to enjoying their rights. A human rights economy starts from a different premise: the economy should serve people and enable everyone to live with dignity.
The Autumn Budget shows both the potential and the limits of current economic policy. Some announcements could help people live with dignity, but the Budget also highlights how far we have to go to build an economy that puts people and their rights first.
An economy that realises rights
A human rights economy would place the realisation of human rights at the centre of economic policy, rather than treating economic growth as an end in itself. Its success would be measured by whether everyone can access the essentials, without discrimination. Moreover, not everyone can afford to wait for the promised day in the future when growth materialises and redistribution starts to deliver.
The Budget does include welcome measures, including £100 in energy bill support, increased investment in social housing and additional funding to tackle rough sleeping. These could make a meaningful difference to people facing hardship.
But the scale of the challenge demands more. The New Economics Foundation has warned that typical energy bills are expected to rise by more than £400 in the first six months of next year.
Flat-rate energy support also fails to account for different household needs, such as families with children or disabled people. From an ESCR perspective, the question is whether government policy enables everyone to afford essential energy, food, medicines, and other requirements for day to day life. Support must be sufficient to protect people’s dignity and enable them to enjoy their rights.
From managing hardship to addressing its causes
ESCR are interconnected and interdependent. Inadequate incomes can prevent people from accessing nutritious food or secure housing; poor housing can undermine health; and insecure work can make it difficult to meet essential costs, even for those in employment.
The Budget’s investment in social housing and action on rough sleeping is welcome. But preventing homelessness is just as important as responding to it. Bringing housing benefit back in line with actual rents would help prevent people being forced to choose between keeping a roof over their heads and paying for food or energy.
A rights-based economy has the potential to address these underlying causes of hardship. Yet this requires more joined-up thinking across government. Too often, decisions about taxation, social security, housing, employment and public services are made in isolation, without sufficient consideration of how they interact or affect people’s ability to enjoy their rights. An overarching human rights framework could help address this, providing a common set of principles to guide policy development and ensure decisions are considered together, with people’s rights at their centre.
Social security should provide an adequate safety net. Work should offer decent conditions and wages that enable people to live with dignity. Public services should be properly resourced so that access to healthcare, education and other essentials does not depend on ability to pay.
This also requires a fairer distribution of resources. Taxation needs to ensure that those with the greatest wealth contribute their fair share, while public spending prioritises people’s needs and the realisation of their rights. Economic policy musta be judged by whether it reduces inequality and enables everyone to enjoy an adequate standard of living, not simply by its impact on growth.
Putting economic and social rights at the heart of the Budget
Recognising ESCR means treating housing, food, health, and social security as fundamental rights, supported by government obligations, effective protections and accountability. These rights should inform decisions about taxation, public spending, and economic policy from the outset, rather than being considered only after decisions have been made.
The Autumn Budget contains measures that could help advance these rights. But individual announcements are not a substitute for a coherent, rights-based approach to economic decision-making.
A human rights economy puts economic, social and cultural rights at the heart of how we organise our society and distribute our resources. The question is not simply whether the economy is growing, but whether it enables everyone to live with dignity and enjoy their rights.
Background image by Yumi KanezakiÂ
