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
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
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
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
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
Badenoch right to axe Britain’s worst tax
Given the scale of Britain’s fiscal problems, there is precious little space for tax cuts However, Kemi Badenoch is right to say that the first priority, if there is the fiscal headroom, should be cutting what is the consensus choice among economists for Britain’s worst major tax As Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride told the Centre… View Article
Centre for Policy Studies issues clarification on Indefinite Leave to Remain statistics
As part of announcing a package of policies on Indefinite Leave to Remain, Reform UK have alluded to research published by the Centre for Policy Studies in February of this year. Part of the research calculated a ballpark figure for the financial cost of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who will soon be eligible… View Article
Shadow Chancellor calls for ‘radical’ economic reform to break cycle of weak growth at CPS report launch
The Shadow Chancellor, Sir Mel Stride MP, spoke at a Centre for Policy Studies event this morning, where ‘Breaking the Cycle‘, a new economic report by CPS research fellow Dr Gerard Lyons, warning UK debt could hit 100% of GDP this decade without urgent action, was launched. Sir Mel Stride has called for ‘radical’ economic… View Article
UK facing ‘genuine risk’ of fiscal crisis without immediate action, says senior economist
Britain is living beyond its means. Without immediate, credible action to rein in spending, contain debt and keep inflation under control, a fiscal crisis may be looming This is the key message in a major new report by Dr Gerard Lyons, arguing that the UK needs a complete economic overhaul. Instead of tax, spend and… View Article
Energy price cap increases while Labour’s 2030 target risks locking in higher bill costs, says CPS
Ofgem’s price cap for an average household paying by direct debit will be £1,755 from October, up slightly from the current level (set in July) of £1,720 and up substantially from the level at the time of the 2024 general election of £1,568 This means average household energy bills will have risen by 10% at… View Article
