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Aug
2010

Tuesday 31st August, 2010

Making Housing Affordable: A new vision for housing policy

By Alex Morton

Edited by Natalie Evans

Making Housing Affordable calls for a radical overhaul of housing policy, saving taxpayers around £20 billion a year.  It calls for a big increase in the number of new homes being built for sale or rent in areas of high demand, with social housing tenants given new ways to get onto the first rung of the housing ladder.

The key policy goal is that by 2030, the Government should aim that all working households be able to afford to buy a decent home - giving all the security and other advantages of owner-occupation and a stake in their communities.

Press coverage Guardian Independent Daily Mail The Sun Evening Standard BBC News Press Association Local Government Chronicle Regeneration & Renewal Inside HousingInside Housing II Iain Dale's Diary Conservative Home epolitix egovmonitor publicservice.co.uk publicfinance.co.uk thisismoney.co.uk whathouse.co.uk homemove.co.uk Crewe Chronicle Hampshire Chronicle

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Saturday 21st August, 2010

Five politically relevant things about where we are on the economy

By Andrew Lilico

Chief Economist Andrew Lilico  has predicted that a double-dip recession in the UK would be followed by a big boom, which in turn would send inflation as high as 10% with interest rates needing to be raised significantly in order to prevent runaway inflation.

Press coverage BBC Radio FiveBBC NewsTelegraphExpressMailMail II City A.M. SpectatorNew StatesmanBloomberg BusinessweekBirmingham Postmortagestrategy.co.ukfinancialadvice.co.uk

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Tuesday 17th August, 2010

Green Bills: An analysis of the projected levy in energy bills

Green Bills reveals how the total levy in energy – effectively tax to pay for climate and renewable energy policies is set to soar by 2020. Figures reveal that by 2020, the cost of policies like the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs – which pay householders to produce power uneconomically through technologies like solar – will hit over £16 billion a year.

That is a tripling in less than a decade, and equivalent to 4p on the current basic rate of income tax, or 2 per cent of total forecast tax revenues in 2020.

Press Coverage Telegraph Mail Conservative Home Utility Week

 

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Jul
2010

Friday 30th July, 2010

Teacher Expertise for Special Educational Needs

By Ralph Hartley

Special schools are suffering from a desperate shortage of teachers trained to deal with pupils with special needs. A Policy Exchange survey revealed that just 5 per cent of special schools found it easy to recruit teachers with the right training.

The research note recommends that all teachers should receive at least some SEN training as part of their initial training and that teachers in specialist roles should have or be working towards specialist qualifications specifically relevant to the needs of the children they are teaching.

Press coverage TES Press Association teacher.tv

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Tuesday 27th July, 2010

Greener, Cheaper

By Robert McIlveen and Dieter Helm

Edited by Simon Less

Taking carbon out of the economy will be difficult and expensive. Public support and economic viability are going to be crucial for decades if long-term success in the battle against climate change is to be achieved – and cost-effectiveness is critical to both.

The report suggests that a carbon tax would be a more cost-effective way of ensuring that Britain goes greener more quickly and more efficiently with a simpler, better targeted policy which is credible over the long term.

Press coverage Economist Financial Times Telegraph Telegraph II Daily Mail Guardian blog The World Tonight Energy Efficiency News You and Yours ENDS Inside HousingPower-gen Worldwide  Conservative Home

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Tuesday 27th July, 2010

Careless: Funding long-term care for the elderly

By Henry Featherstone and Lilly Whitham

The Commission on the funding of care and support long-term announced by the Coalition Government  should not consider paying for care solely through general taxation.

The report says that free personal care funded out of general taxation, as was introduced in Scotland in 2002, could cost the Government up to £106 billion each year – the equivalent to funding a second NHS.  It recommends instead that the Commission considers three specific funding models: the King’s Fund partnership model; a social insurance model as used in Europe, and a hybrid model whereby the State guarantees some level of care, but people are required to top-up for their long term care through insurance or annuity backed products.

Press coverage Guardian FT AdviserBMJ Health Insurance Public Service Citywire Ashall Glover Financial Services Money Marketing

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Wednesday 14th July, 2010

The Devolution Distraction

By Tom Miers

Since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, Scotland’s politicians have neglected to address the deep-seated social and economic problems faced by the country.

This report calls for a new approach to politics in Scotland, based on honesty in measuring performance, radicalism in policy making and a generational truce on the constitutional issue.

Press coverage TelegraphTelegraph IIBBC Newsnight Scotland Telegraph blogScotsman  • Scotsman IIScotsman IIIScotsman IV Press and JournalConservative Home

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Thursday 8th July, 2010

Beware False Prophets: Equality, the Good Society and The Spirit Level

By Peter Saunders

Edited by Natalie Evans

Beware False Prophets is Policy Exchange's critique of The Spirit Level, a book published last year by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which argued that income inequality harms almost everybody in society, no matter how prosperous they are.

In Beware False Prophets Wilkinson and Pickett’s empirical claims are critically re-examined using (a) their own data on 23 countries, (b) more up-to-date statistics on a larger sample of 44 countries, and (c) data on the US states. Very few of their empirical claims survive intact.

Press coverage Times Guardian Guardian blog Telegraph blog New Economics Foundation

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Jun
2010

Friday 18th June, 2010

Controlling Public Spending: Pay, Staffing and Conditions in the Public Sector

By Ed Holmes and Andrew Lilico

People used to say that public sector workers had great pensions to make up for their low salaries.  That’s now out of date, as public sector workers have much better pay, as well as better pensions and conditions.  People in the public sector are better paid and have pensions worth more - while enjoying shorter hours, more time off, and earlier retirement.  There is scope to make savings without being unfair.

Press coverage Radio 5 LiveRadio 5 Live II BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Foyle MailExpressGuardianGuardian IIGuardian III Guardian IV Guardian V SunTelegraphTelegraph blog Spectator Scotsman Sky News BloombergCity A.M. Conservative Home

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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Tuesday 8th June, 2010

What do we want our MPs to be?

By Paul Goodman

Paul Goodman writes for Policy Exchange on what it is that we want from our MPs, at a time when the whole political class has rarely been held in lower esteem.  He argues that MPs should be more independent and less scrutinized by officialdom than they are now. 

He sets out the choice: should MPs be elected representatives, free to use their time and judgement as they see fit and not wholly dependent on the taxpayers’ money and the quango state’s approval? 

Or should we continue down the road to professional politicians, answerable only to their whips, party machines and anonymous quangos, solely reliant on the taxpayer for their income and taking on mountains of inappropriate constituency case work for something to do.

If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk

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