Time to debate new generational contract

The report by the Resolution Foundation - A New Generational Contract - is, arguably, the most important for a generation: and for a generation. Its power lies in those behind the argument, the Intergenerational Commission, an impressively balanced group of movers and shakers in British society convened by Foundation chair David "two brains" Willetts, the former Conservative MP and universities minister.

The report is a hard-nosed tough-talking analysis of the key issues of our time, all relating to young people and the diminution of their prospects, particularly in employment and housing, over the past few decades.

The report has assembled detailed evidence about the experience of different generations. The challenges it identifies can no longer be kicked into the long grass. Whether it is paying for social care for the elderly or access to affordable homes for the young, these are issues that demand attention - and resolution - today.

The intergenerational contract is under threat and needs rebalancing if a fair deal between the generations is to be sustained. The killer concern is that the young may live worse lives than their parents, something that no part of the generational spectrum is particularly happy with. This is the springboard from which policy change needs to take place.

Young adults have suffered terribly in the labour market, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008. There may be more jobs, but many are poorly paid. There has been a slowdown in degree attainment and non-degree routes into the labour market have not plugged the gap. This has had an effect on young people's access to housing, with less likelihood of becoming owner-occupiers and more chance of having to live in the increasingly expensive, more insecure and cramped, private rented sector.

These may be the two big issues for the young, but they are compounded by connected issues relating to, for example, pension schemes and investment returns. Other groups - some pensioners and many families - are also in difficulty which has implications for the young. These issues need attention, recognition and response, in the round.

The commission sets out its stall - health and care for the elderly, and maintenance of the NHS, with cross-generation responsibility for these costs; strengthening labour market possibilities for the young, including ensuring stronger progression routes through education, training and employment; providing immediate housing security and, in the longer term, ensuring more housing diversity; reducing pension risks; and - the idea most flagged in the media - establishing a £10,000 "citizen's inheritance" at age 25 to support skills, entrepreneurship, housing and pensions saving.

Many of these ideas are not particularly new, but they are better packaged and plausibly costed: it "will not be easy, but it can be done". As the report asserts, a stronger intergenerational contract will not only produce a better Britain, but a more united one.

• Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of South Wales