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Industrial Strategy Blogs
The boardroom debate needs to move beyond gender
Emily Redding, Financial Policy Research Fellow at Policy Exchange, outlines the main arguments in her report, Board Rules: Improving Corporate Governance. Emily argues that the focus on making boards more gender representative has skewed the debate away from how we can get more people with a diversity of appropriate skills and experience onto boards.
Why we need a more strategic approach to open data
Open data has huge potential, says Policy Exchange’s Head of Digital Government Eddie Copeland, but there is a danger that the benefits could be lost unless a new approach is taken.
What’s wrong with care.data?
Eddie Copeland, Policy Exchange’s Head of Digital Government, diagnoses the problems with care.data, the government’s attempt to combine GP and hospital records in a new central database. Eddie argues that the initiative is failing to make clear its benefits to individuals and suffers from a lack of trust.
The Year of Code may have got off to a bumpy start but the new focus on computer skills is both very welcome and essential
With 2014 being the government’s ‘Year of Code’ Sarah Fink, Policy Exchange’s Digital Government Research Fellow, looks at the steps being taken by the government to improve computer science teaching in schools. Sarah welcome the new emphasis on computer science teaching, but emphasises the need for the curriculum to keep pace with the rate of technological change and for the curriculum to be about more than just programming.
It should be compulsory for people to save for later life, if we’re to defuse the pensions timebomb
James Barty, Policy Exchange’s Senior Consultant for Financial Policy, sets out his new report Help to Save. The report highlights the pensions time bomb the UK has found itself holding, with the average pension pot less than a sixth of what it needs to be. James calls for overall pension contributions to rise from 8% to 12%, government-issued annuity type bonds and removing the ability to opt out of auto-enrolment pensions.
Our new ‘Call for Evidence’: How do you build a smart city?
As Policy Exchange’s Digital Government Unit launches a major piece of research into the policy challenges for the development of smart cities in the UK, Head of Unit Eddie Copeland invites those with expertise and interest in the field to contribute their views, ideas and case-studies.
Schools need all the support they can get to deliver a world-class Computer Science curriculum
Eddie Copeland, Head of Digital Government at Policy Exchange welcomes the return of Computer Science onto the school curriculum, adding that it has the potential to enable new and existing industries to flourish, expand and succeed in the global digital economy.
The real story on small business lending isn’t restricted to RBS alone
James Barty, Policy Exchange’s Senior Consultant for Financial Policy, criticises policymakers for being dishonest when they urges banks to lend more whilst at the same time insisting that they become safer. James argues that banks’ capital ratios need to be relaxed in order to boost lending to SMEs, a case he made in Policy Exchange’s report Capital Requirements.
Government must incentivise us to save more
James Barty, Head of Financial Policy at Policy Exchange urges the Government to ensure that Britain saves more for the future to encourage higher investment. He also argues that China saves four times more than the UK, with high investment and a trade surplus.
UK tech start-ups are doing well. Let’s now look towards helping them become big businesses
Eddie Copeland, Policy Exchange’s Head of Digital Government, praises David Cameron for using his speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet to reiterate the need to support UK start-ups. Eddie sets out a series of policies that government (relaxing visa requirements for skilled migrants and capital gains tax rollover relief for shares) and the private sector (entrepreneurial sabbaticals) can implement in order to boost the UK start-up scene.
