On Tuesday 3 December 2024 we are delighted to join forces with the Resolution Foundation and the Royal Economic Society to host a panel debating the challenges of demographics - exploring how we can secure the resources needed for sustained economic growth in the face of an ageing population.

Chaired by the Rt Hon Lord Willetts, our expert panel includes Professor Brian Bell, Chair of the UK Government Migration Advisory Committee; Dr Norma Cohen, former Demographic correspondent at the Financial Times and Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor of Demography & International Social Policy at the University of Southampton.

Meet our expert speaker panel:

The Rt Hon Lord Willetts FRS is the President of the Resolution Foundation and Chair of the UK Space Agency. He is a visiting Professor at King’s College London and Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology. He served as the Member of Parliament for Havant (1992-2015), as Minister for Universities and Science (2010-2014) and previously worked at HM Treasury and the No. 10 Policy Unit. Lord Willetts has written widely on economic and social policy. His book “A University Education” is published by Oxford University Press. A second edition of his book “The Pinch” on fairness between the generations was published in 2019.

Professor Brian Bell is Chair of the UK Government Migration Advisory Committee and a Professor of Economics at King’s Business School, a faculty of King’s College London. He joined KCL in 2017, following 4 years as an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Oxford University and a Tutorial Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. Professor Bell is a leading labour economist who is widely published, and his work on immigration has included papers examining the progress of immigrants in the labour market in the UK, and the impact of immigration on crime in the UK. He has also worked extensively outside academia, including at the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, and in a number of financial companies in the UK.

Dr Norma Cohen is Honorary Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London and former Financial Times journalist. During her time there, Norma became Economics Correspondent in January 2008 but was asked to retain her responsibilities for covering pension systems. In 2012, she was given the role of Demography Correspondent. Her role required her to write about the economic effects of rising longevity at older ages, falling fertility, immigration, and urbanisation.

Professor Jane Falkingham is Vice President (Engagement & International) and Professor of Demography & International Social Policy at the University of Southampton. She is also the Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC), whose remit is to ‘improve understanding of the drivers and consequences of population change both nationally and globally’ and PI of the ESRC Connecting Generations research collaboration which brings together CPC experts at the University of Southampton, University of St Andrews, and University of Stirling, with partners at the University of Oxford Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, and the Resolution Foundation.

The event is being generously hosted by the Resolution Foundation, 2 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AA. The event starts with registration and networking drinks from 5.00pm. The panel debate will commence at 5.30pm and close at 6.45pm.

Members can register via the member notices.