Business is the wealth generator of the UK, and small and family businesses are the often neglected heart of the UK economy, with family businesses alone employing nearly four in ten of the UK’s workforce. We propose ways to make the UK an economy all businesses can thrive in.
The Cost of Labour
The costs of employing young people entering the workforce have skyrocketed since Labour came to power, according to new analysis by the Centre for Policy Studies. The research builds on earlier CPS analysis, which showed that Rachel Reeves’ first Budget made 2025 the most expensive year on record for businesses employing those on the minimum… View Article
Britain’s Broken Budgets
Ahead of Rachel Reeves’ second Budget later this week, new analysis from the Centre for Policy Studies argues we need to do away with our current system of fiscal rules as they have failed to improve the public finances since their introduction in 1997. ‘Britain’s Broken Budgets’ by CPS Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy… View Article
The UK’s International Tax Competitiveness 2025 Update
The latest edition of the International Tax Competitiveness Index, published today by the US-based Tax Foundation, shows the UK continuing to languish in 32nd place out of 38 OECD countries in terms of overall tax competitiveness — ahead of only Italy and France in the G7. The Index is an annual ranking of 38 OECD countries… View Article
The City That Doesn’t Build
Despite the clear need for more houses in London, the capital is building at less than a quarter of the per capita rate of the rest of England, according to new analysis published by the Centre for Policy Studies. ‘The City That Doesn’t Build’ by CPS Head of Housing and Infrastructure Ben Hopkinson shows that… View Article
The Responsible Society
It is 100 years since Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham. Fifty years since she took over the Conservative Party. Thirty-three years since she was forced from office. Today’s voters are not Thatcher’s children, but Thatcher’s grandchildren – even great-grandchildren. So why do we still care? In a powerful new essay for the Centre for… View Article
Breaking the Cycle
The UK has a low-growth, low-productivity, low-wage economy – but a high-spend, high-tax, high-borrowing state. Before the 2008 financial crisis, a 21-year-old would have seen the economy double in size by the time they were aged 47 and their living standards rise accordingly. Now they would have to wait until they are at least 64,… View Article
The Cost of the British State
In the wake of the Spending Review, public spending is still on course to reach almost £1.5 trillion in nominal terms and £1.4 billion in today’s money by 2028/29 – representing a real-terms increase of 23% on 2019/20. This means that Government spending per adult is set to reach around £24,190 in today’s money by… View Article
Welfare Reform: Why Labour Must Go Further
New research from the Centre for Policy Studies outlines the scale of the challenge facing the Government in its goal of bringing welfare spending down and getting more Britons into work. The recent reforms announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall aim to make £4.1bn in savings by 2029/30. But the overall bill for… View Article
The Great Grid Gamble
Ed Miliband hailed a recent report from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) as vindicating his plan to decarbonise the grid by 2030. But new analysis shows that the NESO report is built around a series of assumptions designed to cast Miliband’s plans in the best possible light, rather than reflecting the reality of the… View Article
Capital Losses: Why increasing CGT will deter investment, slow growth and reduce revenue
The Chancellor is reportedly considering hiking capital gains tax (CGT) in next week’s Budget, as part of plans to find £40 billion in spending cuts and tax rises CGT is widely accepted to be a damaging tax – hampering investment and economic growth and raising relatively little Recent modelling by the Centre for Policy Studies… View Article
Accelerating Infrastructure
One of Britain’s most pressing problems, as the new government has acknowledged, is how difficult it is to build the infrastructure we need. Infrastructure in Britain is much harder to build than it was historically or than it is today in continental Europe Notoriously, the Lower Thames Crossing has spent 15 years in planning, at… View Article
A Cheaper Route to Net Zero
Despite international gas prices coming back down in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, British households are still struggling with high energy bills because of outdated regulations pushing up costs. ‘A Cheaper Route to Net Zero’ by John Penrose, former Conservative MP and minister, Competition Tsar, leading an independent review of UK competition policy,… View Article
Why the EU is Not the Answer to Britain’s Growth Challenge
All major parties acknowledge that achieving sustained economic growth is key to the country’s success but disagree on how to achieve it The Government is seeking a new deal with the EU, with the Prime Minister talking of resetting relationships at the recent European Political Community conference In some quarters, Brexit is still blamed for… View Article
The Future of Regulation
A major report from the Centre for Policy Studies, ‘The Future of Regulation’, has shown that the cost of regulation increased significantly during the 2010s – despite repeated promises from Government to shrink the regulatory burden. The report by Tom Clougherty & Robert Colvile is the first to go line by line through the official impact assessments produced… View Article
Shaping the Debate: The Centre for Policy Studies in 50 Papers
To mark the 25th anniversary of the CPS in 1999, Matthew d’Ancona – then on the CPS board – compiled a catalogue of CPS reports, published as ‘The First Modernisers: The Centre for Policy Studies, Past & Future’. It contained a list of 298 CPS publications published up until that point, organised thematically and each… View Article
Justice for the Young
The gap between young and old has become the defining political and economic issue of our time, argues a new essay collection from the Centre for Policy Studies ‘Justice for the Young’ sets out the staggering extent of the challenge facing the country in paying for an ageing population while delivering a better life for… View Article
