CPS responds to King’s Speech housing announcements
Responding to the planning reforms announced in the King’s Speech this morning, Samuel Hughes, CPS Head of Housing, said: ‘Britain needs a huge increase in housebuilding, focussed in the places where it is needed most, like London and the South East. It is therefore welcome to see the Government being ambitious in its proposals, but… View Article
CPS welcomes Chancellor’s focus on planning reform
Responding to the new Chancellor’s speech this morning, Robert Colvile, CPS Director, said: ‘Rachel Reeves is absolutely right to focus on the need for growth, and reforming the planning system as key to unlocking that growth. The devil will be in the detail, but today’s announcements on speeding up infrastructure delivery and holding councils’ feet… View Article
CPS warns of UK’s ‘first deepfake election’
With voters heading to the polls in just a matter of weeks, a new report warns that this could become the UK’s first deepfake election A number of deepfakes have already appeared online in recent weeks aimed at spreading election disinformation A deepfake video purported to show Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting calling Diane Abbott… View Article
Tax cuts for parents ‘extremely welcome’ says CPS Director
Responding to the Conservatives’ pledge to cut taxes for parents, CPS Director Robert Colvile said: ‘The Conservatives’ decision to tackle the unfairness of the high-income child benefit tax charge is extremely welcome. As the CPS identified in its recent paper ‘Family-Friendly Taxation’, this is a hugely unfair measure which results in parents paying higher marginal… View Article
CPS welcomes migration proposals
In response to the Conservative Party’s announcements on immigration policy, CPS Research Director Karl Williams said: ‘The Conservatives’ announcement of an annual migration budget, voted on by Parliament, is a welcome step in the right direction. That is why an annual migration budget was one of the core recommendations of the CPS’s recent report on… View Article
Conservative Revolution: Centre for Policy Studies launches 50th anniversary book
Centre for Policy Studies launches Conservative Revolution, a book looking back on the seismic events of the Thatcher premiership and the revolution she ushered in The book charts the history of the Centre for Policy Studies over the following half-century, from its founding by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph to the present day Crucially, in… View Article
CPS welcomes Tory pledge to cut low quality university courses
Responding to the Conservative Party’s election pledge to cut low quality degrees, Centre for Policy Studies Research Director, Karl Williams said: ‘As the Centre for Policy Studies has repeatedly highlighted, far too many young people are being suckered into low quality university courses with poor employment outcomes. ‘This is bad for students – who leave university… View Article
Net migration hits 2 million over this parliament
New and revised data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published today shows that net migration so far in this parliament (to the end of 2023) has totalled over 2 million, equating to population growth of 3% Gross immigration exceeded 4 million, with non-EU nationals accounting for 74% of the total Revised estimates for… View Article
Red tape choking UK tech start-ups, argues new CPS report
The UK’s current regulatory apparatus, which is slow to adapt to emerging technologies, is holding back the UK’s tech superpower ambitions. Many innovators are looking elsewhere to set up new tech firms, due to Britain’s unsupportive regulatory environment. Previous CPS research established that the net annual burden of regulation on business increased by £6bn in… View Article
MAC review ‘whitewashes’ flaws in immigration system
Responding to the Migration Advisory Committee rapid review of the Graduate route, the authors of CPS immigration report, ‘Taking Back Control’ said: Robert Jenrick MP: ‘We urgently need to unwind the sector’s growing dependency on foreign students. The graduate route should be scrapped and we must fundamentally rethink our International Education Strategy (IES), including the… View Article
Mass migration not delivering promised economic benefits, say Jenrick and O’Brien
New report calls for return to tens of thousands target, caps on main migrant routes and splitting up Home Office to increase focus on border control A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies, written by former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick MP, former minister Neil O’Brien MP, and CPS Research Director Karl Williams argues… View Article
Burden on business increased in 2010s by at least £6bn a year
Since 2010, successive governments have promised to cut regulation – and even claimed to have succeeded But an in-depth study by the Centre for Policy Studies of the impact assessments attached to 3,528 pieces of legislation between 2010 and 2019 finds that £35 billion in annual regulatory costs were imposed on businesses in today’s money,… View Article
Bernanke review ‘damning indictment’ of how the Bank of England is run, says Lyons
Responding to Dr Ben Bernanke’s review into the Bank of England’s forecasting processes, CPS Research Fellow Dr Gerard Lyons said: ‘Andrew Bailey may have called the Bernanke review a ‘once in a generation’ review but given the fundamental problems it highlights it should not be seen as a one-off, but more usefully as a catalyst… View Article
CPS Director responds to new CPRE research on rural housing
Responding to new analysis of the rural housing crisis from CPRE, Robert Colvile, CPS Director, said: ‘It is welcome that the CPRE has finally noticed that there is a housing crisis in the British countryside. However, the CPRE has done as much as any organisation to create that crisis, by resolutely opposing any and all… View Article
Stamp duty on shares is ‘a tax on growth’, new CPS modelling shows
First full analysis since financial crisis shows scrapping stamp duty on shares would result in significant uplift to pensions, savings and investment, at little or no overall cost to the taxpayer Abolition of the tax would increase long-run GDP by 0.2% – 0.7%, increase business investment by FTSE firms by between £2.8bn and £6.8bn, and… View Article
Pressures from record migration ‘show no sign of abating’
Home Office migration data published today and covering the whole of 2023 shows that pressures from unprecedented levels of immigration are not abating. Overall, the number of (non-visitor, non-temporary) visas issued rose only marginally (by 1%) in 2023 compared to 2022 – to a new record of 1.36 million visas. However, the underlying trend is… View Article
