Research brief Higher education institutions have a strategically important role to play in our economy. They are the centres of research excellence, the intellectual factories which turn out the UK’s most valuable export (its high skilled people) and they are anchored in a place, often with decades if not centuries of history. But their role […]
Research brief It is impossible to maintain a vibrant labour market without an effective skills system. That we repeatedly attempt to do so suggests this point needs making. Politicians, caught between GCSE league tables and a myopic focus on the role of universities in a future economy, fail to see how a small amount of […]
Research brief No plan to solve the housing crisis is complete without lauding itself as radical. This year’s Housing White Paper describes its “bold, radical vision” to fix a broken housing market. The 2015 productivity plan included “radical measures to shake up the planning system”. A 2007 green paper promised “radical change” in delivering homes […]
The disability employment gap is closing, just not fast enough. Government has created a number of incentives for employers but still too few are aware of the benefits of employing someone with a disability. With the number of people with registered disabilities rising and a potential squeeze on the labour market post Brexit, now is […]
Health and social care integration remains a key priority but it has proven more complex than politicians and policy makers first envisioned. Waves of ‘encouraged innovation’ have been attempted with some progress being made but not enough, as exemplified by the NAO’s recent review. How can these complex service areas integrate in a way that […]
The current mental health system is failing children and young people. Whilst in almost all areas of health and care reform the dominant trend is to encourage people to be more independent and resilient, in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), something has gone badly wrong. This report argues for reform of the mental […]
This short report is a response to the government white paper Fixing our broken housing market. Its starting point is that the white paper is a welcome strategy document which codifies significant and positive shifts in rhetoric. However what the white paper delivers in rhetoric it lacks in specific policy prescriptions. It identifies the parts of the system […]
This report argues that the government should reverse its plans to double the current amount of free childcare for three and four year olds of ‘working families’ to thirty hours. Instead, our proposals recommend that free childcare should be expanded on a means-tested basis providing low-income families fifteen hours free childcare for one year olds and an additional fifteen hours […]
This report makes the case for a locally-led industrial strategy. It argues that to turn a national industrial strategy into local economic renewal, places and their leaders should be provided the space and powers by government to lead from the front. In short places should take control of their local industrial strategy, with greater influence over the […]
To meet the needs of those families ‘just managing’, the Government must free up local authorities to take more decisions on how and where housing can be delivered. In this report we argue that only by affording local authorities greater flexibility around finance and land can the Prime Minister hope to achieve the million new […]