If Theresa May wants to keep the keys to No10 — she must make housing her top priority
77% of the vote swing from the Conservatives to Labour in the 2017 election is attributable to the housing crisis, says Robert Colvile, CPS Director. Writing in The Sun newspaper, Robert highlights the various avenues available to easing the housing crisis – including easing Green Belt restrictions, reform of the planning system, and making it… View Article
A Commons with no majority – so no radical Conservative measures? You’ve forgotten about EVEL
“The received wisdom is that the Conservative Party cannot put forward any truly radical policy proposals”, but Alex Morton disagrees. In his regular column for the Conservative Home website, Morton highlights how English Votes for England Laws (EVEL) could allow the government – unable to command a majority of the Commons as a whole –… View Article
CPS Director slams McDonnell after speech to TUC conference
Labour’s plans to force employers to give gig economy workers full employment rights “isn’t backed up by the facts”, says Robert Colvile in the Mail Online, Tuesday 11 September. Colvile highlighted the fact that many gig economy workers value the flexibility, seeing it as “a fair trade-off for lack of job security”, and said “Labour need to join the… View Article
Graham Brady: Let technical and vocational schools fulfil their potential by allowing them to select
Allowing technical schools to select pupils will give children “of every kind a better chance of ending up in the school that is right for them”, says Sir Graham Brady MP in Conservative Home, 16 August 2018. Sir Graham, who is the Deputy Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies, was responding to Toby Young’s… View Article
Education industry publications cover new report on technical schools
Government should reform technical education and allow schools to select pupils to send the message that this type of eudcation is “a valuable pathway for those with a real flair for it”, reports Schools Week. The recommendation comes from ‘Technically Gifted’, a new report from Toby Young published by the Centre for Policy Studies, in which… View Article
Only competitive selection can save Britain’s ailing technical colleages
University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are being used as “dumping grounds” by neighbouring schools, writes Toby Young in The Telegraph 15 August 2018. In ‘Technically Gifted’, his new report for the Centre for Policy Studies, Young argues allowing UTCs to select students with an aptitude for practical subjects will improve the standing of vocational and technical education. Young… View Article
Robert Colvile urges Hammond to reconsider vape tax proposal
A number of think tanks and organsiations have written an open letter to Philip Hammond and Matt Hancock, urging them to reconsider a proposed vape tax. The letter – signed by CPS Director Robert Colvile along with representatives of the Taxpayer’s Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, and the Institute of Economic Affairs – calls a… View Article
CPS Director urges government to re-examine green belt housing
Green belt land should not be immune from house building, says Robert Colvile, Monday 6 August. Robert was quoted in The Guardian in response to a new data released by the Campaign to Protect Rural England showing an increase in applications to build on the green belt. Robert said it was “bizarre that greater London is… View Article
Ministers urged to axe huge deposits on home lets as tenants lose out
Ministers should consider a system of rental insurance in order to “rectify an unfair system which is unpopular with hard-pressed tenants”, reports the Daily Mirror, Sunday 5 August. The system, proposed by Brian Sturgess in “Down with Deposits” pulished by the Centre for Policy Studies, aims to make life easier for Generation Rent by removing the requirement… View Article
Robert Colvile discusses water nationalisation on BBC Newsnight
As Michael Gove summoned water companies to a meeting to discuss continued leaks and potential hosepipe bans, Robert Colvile joined Emily Maitlis to debate if the water corporations should be renationalised. Debating Faiza Sheehan, Robert highlighted the cost of such a step would be over £80bn and require additional borrowing – as calculated by the… View Article
The Sun: The true scandal of lifting the public sector pay cap is the Left’s whining
The scandal surrounding public sector pay isn’t the reported pay freeze, but the way left-wing vested interests skew the debate with “hand-wringing rhetoric and statistical sleight of hand”, writes Robert Colvile in The Sun, Friday 27 July. While unions solemnly point out a teacher outside London has a starting salary of only £23,000, they neglect to… View Article
Why you’re better off working for the state
The true scandal surrounding public sector pay is that “left-wing vested interests dominate the debate” and obscure the truth, writes Robert Colvile in The Times, 26 July 2018. While it is obvious that public sector workers deserve decent wages, Robert Colvile points out that we also need to ask why public sector pay was (in 2016) on… View Article
Five housing reforms that we need to implement straight away
Housing needs fixing by 2022, otherwise the Conservatives will lose the next general election, warns Alex Morton in Conservative Home. Alex, Director of Policy at the Centre for Policy Studies, argues there are 5 main areas where action needs to be taken: improving design to reduce conflict with existing residents, change of use, accelerating building… View Article
Damian Green slams ‘ruthless’ social media companies in call for digital election rules crackdown
Political campaigning posts on social media should be regulated in a similar way to printed materials, said Damian Green, in comments to the Centre for Policy Studies, reports Sky News. Speaking at the launch of ‘Who Governs Britain?’, Green backed the report’s proposal calling for an online version of the traditional political imprint, saying “There needs… View Article
The Times: Confidence in democracy and MPs ‘at crisis point’
Online political advertisments and targeted campaigns should carry an imprint similar to those on printed election materials in order to boost trust in politics, says Matt Warman MP. The idea is just one of many put forward in ‘Who Governs Britain?’, a new report published by the Centre for Policy Studies as part of its… View Article
Tell voters who is really to blame, says the Daily Mail
The public should be able to find out which elected official is behind a decision and why it was made, reports the Daily Mail, Monday 23 July 2018. That is one of a number of policy proposals that tries to address to gap between politicians and the public as polling shows the public don’t trust… View Article
