Publications Archive

Green Bills reveals how the total levy in energy – effectively tax to pay for climate and renewable energy policies – is set to soar by 2020. Figures reveal that by 2020, the cost of policies like the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs – which pay householders to produce power uneconomically through technologies like solar – will hit over £16 billion a year.

Beware False Prophets is Policy Exchange’s critique of The Spirit Level, a book published last year by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which argued that income inequality harms almost everybody in society, no matter how prosperous they are.

Paul Goodman writes for Policy Exchange on what it is that we want from our MPs, at a time when the whole political class has rarely been held in lower esteem.

The research note recommends that all teachers should receive at least some SEN training as part of their initial training and that teachers in specialist roles should have or be working towards specialist qualifications specifically relevant to the needs of the children they are teaching.

Careless argues that introducing free personal care funded by general taxation is far too expensive. The report instead recommends that three specific funding models be considered by the Coalition’s Commission on the funding of care and support long-term.

The report suggests that a carbon tax would be a more cost-effective way of ensuring that Britain goes greener more quickly and more efficiently with a simpler, better targeted policy which is credible over the long term.

In the first part of a major study into local government financial reform, Policy Exchange examines the history of local government funding in England and Wales, from feudalism through the Victorian period to present day. The authors show how the contemporary system of highly centralised control is a product of the government’s desire to maintain uniformity and fiscal discipline.

Incentivising boring banking argues that deposit insurance in a fractional banking reserve system is economically damaging and financially destabilising (as it encourages excessive risk-taking by the banks), but politically impossible to avoid.

A State of Disorder contends that while some limited progress has been made in tackling anti social behaviour, there are a host of weaknesses with the government’s approach.

People used to say that public sector workers had great pensions to make up for their low salaries. That’s now out of date, as public sector workers have much better pay, as well as better pensions and conditions. People in the public sector are better paid and have pensions worth more – while enjoying shorter hours, more time off, and earlier retirement. There is scope to make savings without being unfair.

This report contends that there are a series of fundamental problems with the way the issue of drugs in prisons is approached – and that despite repeated warning signs, the Prison Service appears destined to continue down the same failed path.

The report argues that, whilst it has not yet filtered into wider general consciousness, there is a large body of economic evidence suggesting that reducing government borrowing would lead to higher growth, even in the short term (i.e. cutting the deficit early would promote recovery, not endanger it).

This report calls for a more honest approach from government. We argue that if the government wishes to use the Winter Fuel Payment funding to boost the incomes of older people, it should do so transparently through the pensions or benefits system. If, on the other hand, it is serious about helping people who struggle to heat their homes, the government should focus on improving domestic energy efficiency and effective approaches to tackling poverty.

This report analyses the health and safety regime in the UK. The problem lies less with the regulations themselves and more with the culture of over-compliance that has developed. There is considerable scope to align the health and safety regime more closely with common sense and to lessen the burdens that it creates, and the report suggests a number of areas where reform is needed.

This report examines the effect of various different types of tax on economic growth and employment.

It is a popular myth that smoking is a net contributor to the economy – our research finds that every single cigarette smoked costs the country 6.5 pence. In order to balance income and costs, tobacco duty should be progressively increased until the full societal cost of smoking is met through taxation.

The report argues that the continuing obsession at the top of Government with ‘being seen to do something’ means that ministers think and act if they were responsible for almost all significant operational decisions, in effect undermining the independence that was at the heart of creating Foundation Trusts.

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.