Labour set to break infrastructure pledge after ministers delay half of major projects
Labour pledged to decide on 150 major infrastructure projects within five years, but half (52%) of all such decisions in 2025 have faced a delay by ministers Across 14 delayed projects, ministers have been responsible for 1,333 days of dithering beyond the initial three-month decision period At current rates, the Government is set to miss… View Article
Lee Rowley joins CPS as Research Fellow
The Centre for Policy Studies is delighted to announce the appointment of Lee Rowley as a Research Fellow. He was most recently Chief of Staff to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and was previously Member of Parliament for North East Derbyshire. While in Parliament, he served as Minister for Housing, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in… View Article
Cost of hiring young workers rises by over £4,000, CPS analysis shows
A combination of tax rises and minimum wage rises, in successive Budgets, has drastically increased the cost of employing low-wage workers Between 2024 and 2026, the cost of employing a full-time worker on the minimum wage has risen by £3,414 Increases in minimum wages for young people entering the workforce mean that the rise for… View Article
CPS media coverage for the Budget 2025
Ahead of the Budget the CPS published a new briefing outlining the problems with the way Britain uses forecasting within our Budgets. The paper by CPS Head of Research Daniel Herring was covered by The Times, the Telegraph, CapX, and Times Radio. CPS Director Robert Colvile also responded to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement in the… View Article
Budget ‘bad in every way’ says CPS
Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget, Centre for Policy Studies Director Robert Colvile said: ‘This was a bad Budget in every way. Bad because it raises tax to post-war highs. Bad because it puts off difficult decisions until the final years of the forecast period. And bad because it avoids any attempt at reforming and simplifying… View Article
Further minimum wage rise will lock more people out of work, says CPS
Responding to today’s minimum wage announcement, Daniel Herring, Centre for Policy Studies Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy, said: ‘Businesses and workers are still grappling with the impact of the previous Budget, in which the Chancellor increased the cost of hiring a minimum wage worker by £2,367 per year as she increased employers’ National Insurance… View Article
Press coverage for ‘Migration Revolution’
Following data revisions by the Office for National Statistics, the CPS published a short briefing highlighting the extent to which earlier population figures understated recent demographic change in the United Kingdom. The report was covered by the Daily Express, CapX, LBC, the Independent, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, ConservativeHome, and The Scotsman. Karl Williams also… View Article
Britain’s Budgets are broken, argues new CPS briefing
The 2025 Budget process has been absurd. But absurdity is built into the system, driven by a narrow obsession with hitting a particular level of headroom in five years’ time Britain has now had 10 sets of fiscal rules since Gordon Brown introduced the concept, none of which survived the Chancellor who imposed them Over… View Article
Revised migration data shows extraordinary scale of UK population change
Updated data from the ONS shows that population growth since 2021 has been higher than previously thought, with 4.80 million people arriving in 2021-4 and net immigration of 2.55 million, equivalent to population growth of 3.8 per cent The net inflow of non-British nationals – 2.9 million people – is equivalent to around 4.4% of… View Article
Half-hearted asylum reforms won’t secure Britain’s borders
Responding to the Government’s asylum system reforms announced today, Centre for Policy Studies Research Director Karl Williams said: ‘As the CPS argued in ‘Stopping the Crossings’ in 2022, a radical overhaul of asylum is needed to diffuse deterrence throughout the system. While the measures announced by the Home Secretary today represent a small step towards… View Article
Media coverage: ‘Tax Reforms for Growth’
A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies and six other leading think tanks sets out proposals to reform Britain’s tax system. ‘Tax Reforms for Growth’, co-authored by experts from the Centre for Policy Studies, CenTax, IPPR, the Adam Smith Institute, the New Economics Foundation, Bright Blue, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, outlines seven… View Article
London housebuilding boost ‘encouraging’ but not the end of the road, says CPS
The government has today published a new package of support for housebuilding in London The average private renter in London can expect to spend between 40% and 50% of their income on rent. Homes England has estimated that increasing London’s housing stock by 5% would decrease housing costs by 10% and raise economic productivity by… View Article
Government drastically understating the burden of regulation, warns CPS
The Government’s ‘Regulation Action Plan’ contains many welcome ideas for cutting the burden of red tape But a new briefing by Robert Colvile, Centre for Policy Studies Director, argues that it is built around deeply flawed estimates for the costs of regulation The briefing shows that the Government has abandoned Keir Starmer’s promise to cut… View Article
Annual survey finds UK tax competitiveness remains woeful – and Budget could make things even worse
The 2025 edition of the International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI), published today by the US-based Tax Foundation, finds that the UK remains near the bottom of the global pile, with a tax system that is both uncompetitive and anti-growth The UK ranks 32nd out of 38 OECD countries, the same overall position as last year… View Article
Coverage for ‘The City That Doesn’t Build’
‘The City That Doesn’t Build’ is a new briefing by the Centre for Policy Studies’ Head of Housing Ben Hopkinson which sets out the scale of house-building collapse in London. The briefing was endorsed by Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly. The paper got widespread coverage, including on over thirty local BBC radio stations, as well… View Article
Khan has ‘buried London in red tape’, says Cleverly, as housebuilding collapses
Of all the British regions, London has the biggest need for more homes. The median home in London is more than 11.5 times more expensive than the median London salary, and the capital has the lowest vacancy rate of any British region The average private renter in London can expect to spend between 40% and… View Article
