The coalition says its spending cuts will lead to a ‘fairer Britain’, but the evidence points to a widening inequality gap in coming years

Claims to ‘fairness’ have been a feature of the rhetoric used by Coalition ministers in relation to their programme of austerity and budget cuts. However definitions of the term have been wide ranging and show no coherence as an integrated philosophy informing policy. Tania Burchardt takes a closer look at some benchmarks for fairness and finds that if anything, the Coalition’s policies are likely to widen inequality in Britain in the coming years.