CPS calls for clarity over Miliband’s ‘lower bills’ claim
Ed Miliband today repeated his claim that his energy plans will deliver ‘lower bills’ for consumers. But his own announcement claims merely that his plans ‘could see’ bills fall. And as recent Centre for Policy Studies analysis has shown, that is only in a scenario in which both gas and carbon prices are far higher… View Article
New report shows how Tories can win again
In July, the Conservatives suffered one of the worst election defeats in their history. A new report based on polling of 4,000 voters and immersive research in the marginal seats of Don Valley, Guildford and Swindon shows that it was the Conservatives’ concrete failures on the economy, migration and the NHS that doomed the party,… View Article
New analysis raises severe questions over Miliband’s energy plans
Ed Miliband claims that a recent report from the National Energy System Operator (NESO), commissioned on his instructions, vindicates both his plan to decarbonise the power grid by 2030 and his claim that this will be cheaper for consumers But analysis of the NESO paper by the Centre for Policy Studies shows that its underlying… View Article
CPS responds to ONS migration figures
Responding to the ONS migration figures released today, CPS Research Director Karl Williams said: ‘Today’s net migration figures from the ONS are astonishing. Not only is the figure of 728k for 2023-4 far higher than expected, but numbers for 2022-3 have been revised upwards by 166k to a new record of 906k. The scale of… View Article
CPS welcomes pension fund shake-up
Responding to the Treasury’s announcement, ahead of Rachel Reeves’ Mansion House Speech, CPS Director Robert Colvile said: ‘The announcement that the Treasury plans to push ahead with the amalgamation of the Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) is very welcome. It was the CPS, in a series of reports by pensions expert Michael Johnson, that first… View Article
UK on track for 300-year tax high, shows CPS analysis
Following Rachel Reeves’ Budget on Wednesday, a new report from the Centre for Policy Studies shows that state spending will sit at an astonishing £1.5 trillion by 2029/30 Labour is also choking off growth, with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicting another five years of mediocre growth and squeezed living standards. Instead of topping… View Article
CPS Director responds to the Budget
Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget, CPS Director Robert Colvile said: ‘Labour came into power promising to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7. And the Chancellor opened her Budget by saying that the route to growth was to ‘Invest. Invest. Invest’. But by hammering the private sector, she has delivered a Budget which –… View Article
Left-leaning bias ‘commonplace’ in AI powered chatbots, shows new report
In just a few short years Artificial Intelligence-powered Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini have moved from the realms of science-fiction to the screens of our smartphones As people shift from traditional search engines, which provide a range of results, to LLMs which provide what may appear to be a definitive summation,… View Article
Labour’s tax changes could cause UK tax competitiveness to plummet
The UK ranks a dismal 30th out of 38 OECD countries in the 2024 edition of the International Tax Competitiveness Index, published today by the US-based Tax Foundation This extremely poor ranking – below countries like Hungary (7th), Czechia (8th), and Germany (15th) – undermines the UK’s attractiveness to investors, and the Government’s stated aim… View Article
Government urged to fix ‘infrastructure inertia’
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
Net zero costing ‘billions of pounds more than it needs to’, says former Conservative minister
British energy bills are inflated with extra costs imposed by clunky old rules about how power is generated, regulated, traded, stored and transmitted With modernisation, energy bills could be cheaper, subsidies could be lower, British manufacturing could be more competitive, and the country would be on a much cheaper path to Net Zero A new… View Article
CPS responds to Reeves’ conference speech
Responding to the Chancellor’s speech to Labour Party conference, CPS Research Director Karl Williams said: ‘The Chancellor has rightly put growth at the heart of her speech today but she seems blind to the impossibility of achieving the growth this country needs while talking down our economic performance and bracing the country for a painful… View Article
Britain’s real black hole is far larger than £22bn – and far harder to close
Rachel Reeves has warned of a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances. But the reports published today by the Office for Budget Responsibility and Lord Darzi show that the real black hole is far larger – and driven by the cavernous gap between Britain’s spending commitments and its growth rates. The Office for… View Article
Britain’s growth does not depend on the EU says leading economist
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 conferenceIn some quarters, Brexit is still blamed for recent… View Article
CPS responds to Labour housing announcements
Responding to the announcement of a draft new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), CPS Director Robert Colvile said: ‘This announcement contains some overwhelmingly positive changes, many of which the Centre for Policy Studies and others have been calling for for some time. Reviewing green belt land, streamlining planning, forcing local authorities to have up-to-date local… View Article
CPS: Labour is paving the way for tax rises
Responding to the Chancellor’s statement following a review of the public finances, CPS Director Robert Colvile, said: ‘The war of words between Rachel Reeves and Jeremy Hunt should not obscure the most important consequence of what we heard – that Labour is set to increase taxes at the October Budget. ‘The Chancellor is presenting this… View Article
