Burnham’s council house pledge adds to England’s £79bn housing subsidy, according to a new report
As he prepares to enter Downing Street, Andy Burnham has pledged to oversee ‘the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period £39bn is earmarked over the next decade for the construction of subsidised housing for social rent in England – £3.9 billion per year – despite the UK already having the fourth highest… View Article
Conservatives and Reform can seize London’s once-in-a-generation housing opportunity, says new report
London faces the worst housebuilding crisis since the Second World War. Between 2021/22 and 2023/4, the other regions of England delivered 94% of their housing targets, while the capital managed only 36%. In 2024/25, only 4,170 homes started construction, even as the population grew by nearly 100,000. A new joint report from Onward and the… View Article
Unlocking aspiration is key to any future Conservative government
Aspiration needs to be the anchor of any future Conservative policy offering, according to a new pamphlet endorsed by Michael Gove and Katie Lam MP. The report, written by Conservative activists and published by the Centre for Policy Studies, sets out why reclaiming aspiration as a core national value is both a moral imperative and… View Article
Labour’s EU reset plans ‘no substitute’ for a credible growth strategy, says leading economist
Labour politicians have repeatedly raised the prospect of Britain moving closer to the EU, either through a reset in relations that sees the UK becoming more of a rule-taker or by rejoining either the Single Market, the Customs Union or even the EU itself A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies argues that… View Article
Britain’s tribunal system rewarding pointless litigation, new research warns
A new briefing from the Centre for Policy Studies argues that Britain’s tribunal system has become swollen, costly and damaging to growth Between 2019/20 and 2024/5, the number of new immigration cases increased from 42,293 to 79,074. The number of welfare cases increased from 93,303 to 132,965. And the number of special educational needs and… View Article
CPS welcomes Lords call for pro-growth regulation
The Government has said that economic growth is its number one mission. However, a new report from a cross-party House of Lords committee makes clear that there is a ‘significant gap’ between its ambitions to reduce regulatory barriers to investment and ‘the reality faced by regulators and businesses on the ground’. The report made a series of… View Article
Reform’s triple lock pledge would kick the pension time-bomb further down the road
Responding to Reform UK’s announcement on retaining the pension triple lock, CPS Head of Economic & Fiscal Policy, Daniel Herring said: ‘Reform’s commitment to the triple lock is disappointing for a party that promised radical change. By 2070, the OBR projects that pension spending will have risen from 5.1%% to 7.8% of GDP. Spending on… View Article
New analysis reveals alarming decline in UK innovation
Britain prides itself on being a world leader in science, research and innovation. But that reputation is increasingly hollow New research published today by the Centre for Policy Studies shows that the average number of patents filed with the UK Intellectual Property Office has fallen from 29,000 a year in the 1990s to 21,000 a… View Article
Robert Colvile to step down as CPS Director
The Centre for Policy Studies has today announced that its Director, Robert Colvile, will be stepping down in the coming months. Robert joined the Centre for Policy Studies team in September 2016 as Editor of its CapX media arm, becoming Director of the CPS and Editor-in-Chief of CapX in October 2017. During his tenure the… View Article
Spring Forecast’a disappointment to match Britain’s economic performance’
Responding to the Chancellor’s Spring Forecast, CPS Director Robert Colvile said: ‘The Spring Forecast was, like Britain’s economic performance, an overwhelming disappointment. Indeed, a Chancellor can rarely have sounded so excited to announce a downgrade in growth. ‘The Chancellor may well be right to limit policy changes to the autumn Budget – although the Government’s… View Article
Energy price cap falls – but Britons are still paying over £100 in subsidies
Today Ofgem has announced the energy price cap for 1 April to 30 June 2026 will be £1,641, down from £1,738 in Q1 Despite the fall, over £100 of the average annual bill will still go towards subsidies and policy costs, Ofgem’s own figures put this at £106 after today’s changes Earlier this week the… View Article
Britain can still have cheap energy – if the state steps back
Britain is being crippled by high energy prices – our industrial power prices are 90% higher than the European average, and household bills 20% higher A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies argues that a huge part of the problem is that the power market has become ever-more dominated and dictated by the… View Article
Failure to tackle productivity crisis costing Britain billions
Britain has a productivity crisis. But a new CPS paper by John Redwood argues that it is at its worst in the public sector, and is costing Britain billions as a result Spending plans in the recent Budget are predicated on productivity growth three times what we are currently seeing. Failure to reach these levels… View Article
London facing ‘worst housebuilding challenge’ since Second World War, new analysis shows
Planning reform’ was mentioned a record 520 times in Parliament in 2025, according to Hansard However, new analysis shows the Government has not met talk with action In the last financial year, every English region started fewer homes than in the previous financial year In London – where the housing crisis is most acute –… View Article
