Publications Archive

This report examines the changes required to make an expanded programme of genuinely independent state schools a reality.

This report analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the UK as a place for manufacturing, and puts forward a manifesto to strengthen British competitveness in industry.

Fighting Fraud and Financial Crime, recommends the consolidation of existing investigation and prosecution powers from the disparate agencies involved into a single new ‘Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency’, overseen by the Attorney General.

The Renewal of Government is a short analysis of the many issues facing Britain today. It recommends a root-and-branch reform of public policy, and shows in detail how to implement it.

The report highlights late diagnosis, poor survival rates for older people and those in deprived communities, and relatively poor take up of new treatments and technologies as being the most likely causes behind the UK’s comparatively high mortality rate for cancer patients.

More Fees Please? warns that with the Government’s student loan debt expected to rocket to £55 billion by 2018, the Treasury will not be able to afford a rise in fees without a radical change to the system of student support.

Since Labour entered government in 1997 it has developed several schemes for encouraging an increase in the rate of saving. But because much of it has been insufficiently co-ordinated it is now time to develop a holistic approach that makes saving consistently attractive.

This report not only sets out an alternative approach for the next climate change treaty; it also develops the reasoning behind it. While the result will be imperfect and is not, by design, as cost-effective as a Kyoto-style approach would have been if it had worked, the approach outlined has a much greater chance of actually delivering significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, as the case of HFCs demonstrates, it already has.

This report warns that public service broadcasting needs to be radically overhauled if it is to survive in the new digital age.

In this report, author Mark Boleat sets out some guiding principles for regulation covering in particular effective policy making, enforcement, combating “backdoor regulation”, funding and evaluation.

This report looks at the skills system in England in order to understand the problems which beset it and to offer recommendations for reform. It offers a critique of the 2006 Leitch review, which is seen as the major driving force behind recent Government policy on skills.

Our research, which included a roundtable discussion with a number of senior academics and business leaders with expertise in the NHS, considers some of the options for the NHS in a period of tight funding.

At a Rate of Knots argues that we can make much more of the river Thames for very little cost, producing a new, integrated and expanded service which will offer a great new option for many of London’s commuters. The river is a core part of London’s identity yet it is cut off from its transport network. This report sets out how to correct this.

The report examines how we can meet the challenge of securing sufficient and secure gas supplies in the decade ahead. As our nuclear and coal power plants shut down gas will be needed to fill the gap, which will require a more strategic approach from government.

A new report on adoption services in England by think tank Policy Exchange has found that upwards of 1,000 children a year are living in foster care unnecessarily because Local Authorities (LAs) are failing to work closely with voluntary sector providers of adoption services.

Which Doctor? proposes a radical new framework to tackle the inequality of primary health care provision. The proposals recommend that the majority of NHS funding (£84.4 billion in 2010–11) be distributed on the basis of a patients’ age and postcodes, and that GPs be financially incentivised to set up practices in areas of most need through a ‘patient premium’.

Published soon after the announcement of the European Systemic Risk Board, Financial Instability: are Counter Cyclical Capital Controls the answer? looks at how Counter Cyclical Capital Controls (CCCCs) could work in the UK.

Controlling Spending and Government Deficits draws from twelve international and historical case studies in order to examine how Britain might best rid itself of the current overwhelming deficit.

Innovation and Industry: The Role of Universities looks at how universities could form a key part of Britain’s economic recovery by acting as incubators of business and providers of expertise.

Partners in Crime calls for the introduction of elected police heads, responsible for meeting the needs of local people and revitalising the relationship between the police and the public.

In this short volume of essays, the leading think tanks debate the pros and cons of a range of approaches to putting democracy in the United Kingdom on a firmer footing. It features contributions from CentreForum, Demos, the Fabian Society, ippr, Policy Exchange and Reform.

This Research Note recommends that the current child poverty targets should be replaced and the Child Poverty Bill withdrawn. We are not, however, arguing that the government should abandon its broader concern to improve child wellbeing and the causes of poverty.

Our report debunks the Government’s claims about the performance and take-up of science subjects at every level – GCSE, A Level and degree. Instead, misleading figures and lowered standards were found to behind many of the apparent ‘improvements’, with the result that British businesses now face a critical skills shortage.

This Research Note makes a series of recommendations for improving the tax system, access to finance, public procurement and regulation.

Our latest report estimates that in order to renew and replace much of Britain’s tired infrastructure, around £500 billion will need to be spent by 2020 to improve Britain’s competiveness, stimulate economic growth and meet the challenge of climate change.

This report seeks to identify strategies that reformers can utilise to spread problem-solving justice as broadly as possible in a time of shrinking resources.

The report recommends reducing the expected rises in benefits over the next few years, tapering away the Family element of the Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit at 39% once the Child Element has been exhausted and raising the earnings disregard for all means-tested benefits to £92.80.

Educating Rita recommends that the government must invest £33 million to begin tackling the chronic underfunding of part-time students who currently receive a fraction of the support given to their younger full-time counterparts.

A Wasted Opportunity recommends the radical overhaul of the UK’s waste system to reduce the cost on households, improve recycling rates, increase local authority efficiency and expand the proportion of the UK’s energy needs met through waste.