Publications
All Policy Exchange publications are free to download in .pdf format. You can also purchase hard copies of the majority of our reports – check each individual report page for details.
Economics & Social Policy Publications
Eight Great Technologies
Policy ExchangeThe UK is facing global challenges. Our research is world class, but we need to be better at taking our great scientific research and applying it. This pamphlet, by Universities and Science Minister Rt Hon David Willetts MP, sets out eight great technologies where we can do exactly that.
A Better Start in Life: Long-term approaches for the most vulnerable children
Policy ExchangeThis report argues that the government should increase the number of looked after and disadvantaged children given the opportunity to attend boarding schools. Using residential schooling can provide children with stability at home and at school, is actually cheaper than foster care and disadvantaged children staying in boarding schools attain better grades.
Bigger and Quieter: The right answer for aviation
Policy ExchangeBigger and Quieter: The right answer for aviation examines all of the options for increasing airport capacity in the UK and concludes that the best option would be to place four runways immediately west of the current Heathrow site. This would double the existing capacity to 130 million passengers, cementing it as Europe’s premier hub.
Do the Public Back More Reform of Public Services? An overview of the latest opinion research
Sean Worth and Colleen NwaodorThis research briefing gives an overview of the public’s attitudes to key issues of public services reform – specifically, issues of choice, quality and the use of more providers from outside the state, including charities, social enterprises and businesses. It uses new polling carried out for this study, as well as examining what is known from existing research.
Mind the Gap: The size and costs of pay differentials between the public and private sectors in the UK
Matthew OakleyMind the Gap examines how public and private wages differ in local areas. It demonstrates a complex picture of mismatches between the wages one might expect individuals to receive based on their characteristics and types of job, and the public sector wages they receive: pay differentials vary dramatically both across and within regions and across the pay distribution.
Local Pay, Local Growth: Reforming pay setting in the public sector
Ed Holmes and Matthew OakleyRebalancing the pay and pensions of public sector workers so that they are in line with that of equivalent workers in the private sector would save £6.3 billion a year in public spending. This money would be better spent on tackling local unemployment and could create at least 288,000 private sector jobs in some of the areas of the country suffering most from the impact of the recession.
Welfare Reform 2.0: Long-term solutions, not short-term savings
Matthew OakleyRead Publication Welfare Reform 2.0 says politicians need to be more honest about how successful JobCentre Plus is at reducing the number of people claiming benefits. While they talk of 75% of all benefit claimants moving off JSA within six months, in fact, less than...
Too Much to Lose: Understanding and Supporting Britain’s Older Workers
Matthew TinsleyToo Much to Lose finds that the valuable contribution that older workers – who at 8.3 million make up a quarter of the workforce – make to the economy is often ignored. The report makes recommendations for better helping unemployed older workers back to work, and to support individuals’ opportunities later in life.
Retail Market Reform and the Future Shape of the Domestic Energy Retail Market
Policy ExchangeOn 29 May Policy Exchange held a roundtable discussion on Retail Market Reform and the future shape of the domestic energy retail market. The discussion included experts from academia, large and small energy suppliers, consumer groups, government and the energy regulator. This publication is a summary of the remarks made at that event.
Father Figures: How absent fathers on welfare could pay meaningful child support
Policy ExchangeFather Figures reveals that the Child Support Agency has tended to put more emphasis on collecting child support from fathers who are working, ignoring those on benefit who are only required to contribute £5 a week. The report recommends imposing work obligations on these men and cutting their benefit if they don’t comply.
