Publications
Jun
2010
Monday 7th June, 2010
Incentivising boring banking: an alternative approach
Policy Exchange's report recommends abolishing the current system of deposit insurance.
Incentivising boring banking argues that deposit insurance in a fractional banking reserve system is economically damaging and financially destabilising (as it encourages excessive risk-taking by the banks), but politically impossible to avoid.
Press Coverage • Reuters • Telegraph • CentreRight • CityAM • Telegraph II
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Tuesday 1st June, 2010
Coming Clean: Combating drug misuse in prisons
By Max Chambers
It is an open secret that our prisons, traditionally thought of as secure institutions, are awash with drugs. The easy availability of drugs in prisons undermines treatment programmes, allows prisoners to maintain anti-social habits during their sentence, and leaves them unprepared for release and primed to reoffend. What is less widely known is how drugs worth an estimated £100 million really get in to prisons, and what really goes on inside prisons in an effort to get inmates off drugs and prepared for release.
There is no doubt that significant additional funding was provided during recent years by the previous Government, attempting to both reduce the supply of drugs and to reduce demand for them through engaging prisoners in treatment programmes. However, this report contends that there are a series of fundamental problems with the way these issues are approached – and that despite repeated warning signs, the Prison Service appears destined to continue down the same failed path.
Press Coverage
• The Guardian • The Express • The Express II • Daily Mail
• Channel 4
• ConservativeHome • BBC News • The Spectator • The Metro • Legal News Central • Medical News Today • Belfast Telegraph • Telegraph & Argus • Plymouth Herald
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Apr
2010
Thursday 1st April, 2010
The Cost of Inaction: Why cutting spending will boost recovery, even in the short term
By Andrew Lilico, Neil O'Brien and Hiba Sameen
Edited by Ed Holmes
Much of the media commentary around the deficit is informed by a crude and out of date view that higher borrowing will always and everywhere have a stimulatory effect on the economy. In fact a large body of economic evidence has accumulated in recent decades that reducing government borrowing leads to higher growth, at least in situations where borrowing is high.
As a useful (if not entirely fair) shorthand, we can describe the view that cutting deficits should be expected to reduce growth at least in the short term as the “Keynesian” view, and refer to mechanisms whereby reducing deficits promotes growth even in the short term as “non-Keynesian”. We argue that, since consolidations based on tax rises often fail, resulting in large falls in output in the short-term and rises (not falls) in deficits, whilst those based on spending cuts are most likely to be successful, it is very important to signal, early and credibly, that the consolidation will be largely spending-cuts-based.
Press Coverage • bankingtimes.co.uk • ConservativeHome • Burning our Money • ConservativeHome II • Whathouse?
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Mar
2010
Tuesday 23rd March, 2010
Cold Comfort - Fuel Poverty and the Winter Fuel Payment
By Andrew Brinkley and Simon Less
The Government is failing on its Fuel Poverty target. The number of households spending more than 10% of income on energy has risen steadily since the launch of the Fuel Poverty strategy. The Government’s own figures show that by 2007, the numbers of people in fuel poverty in the UK had risen to 4,000,000 from 2,500,000 in 2001. Even more worrying, they suggest that there may have been 6,500,000 by 2009 - and this despite spending of £20 billion.
This report calls for a more honest approach from Government. We argue that if the Government wishes to use the WFP funding to boost the incomes of older people, it should do so transparently through the pensions or benefits system. If, on the other hand, it is serious about helping people who struggle to heat their homes, the government should focus on improving domestic energy efficiency and effective approaches to tackling poverty.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Tuesday 23rd March, 2010
Health and Safety: Reducing the burden
By Corin Taylor
Edited by Natalie Evans
Something has clearly gone wrong with health and safety. Micro-businesses, employing fewer than ten people, are spending one person-day a month complying with health and safety rules. The health and safety industry is growing at a rapid rate. Volunteers are being put off helping their communities for fear of being sued. Emergency service personnel are instructed to consider their own health and safety before the welfare of those in need. Much as the media will exaggerate isolated cases, the health and safety culture in Britain is having a pernicious effect on our lives. Health and safety is becoming a ritual excuse for not doing anything.
Press Coverage • ConservativeHome
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Monday 22nd March, 2010
Taxation, Growth and Employment
By Andrew Lilico and Hiba Sameen
This report examines the effect of various different types of tax on economic growth and employment. The tax system may thereby distort the choices between work and leisure, consumption and savings, and domestic and foreign investment. These tax-induced distortions impede efficient allocation of resources across the economy and lead to a cost over and above the revenue collected. Not only does the tax present a cost to the taxpayer, it also creates an additional welfare loss. Some taxes may create bigger distortions and deadweight costs than others.
Press Coverage • Telegraph • Financial Times • City A.M. • Spectator • Channel 4 • Telegraph Blog • financialdirector.co.uk • eGov Monitor • Conservative Home • TaxPayer's Alliance • Burning our Money • Burning our Money II
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Thursday 18th March, 2010
Cough Up: Balancing tobacco income and costs in society
By Robert Nash and Henry Featherstone
Smoking is the single, largest preventable cause of serious ill health and kills tens of thousands of people in England every year. It is a popular myth that smoking is a net contributor to the economy – our research finds that every single cigarette smoked costs the country 6.5 pence. In order to balance income and costs, tobacco duty should be progressively increased until the full societal cost of smoking is met through taxation.
Press Coverage • Telegraph • Mirror • Sky News • Press Association • Daily Record • politics.co.uk • Nursingtimes.net
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Thursday 18th March, 2010
Future Foundations: towards a new culture in the NHS
By Bill Moyes and Paul Corrigan
Edited by Henry Featherstone
Writing for think tank Policy Exchange, the architects of the Government’s Foundation Trust programme call for a wholesale change in the culture of the NHS. Currently hampered by tight central control, which stifles innovation and effective delivery of services, their report argues that Ministers and Parliament still assume that the only approach is to exert managerial authority and issue top down instructions.
The report, Future Foundations, is co-authored by Paul Corrigan, former health advisor to Tony Blair and Health Secretaries Alan Milburn and John Reid, and Bill Moyes, who was until recently the Chairman and Chief Executive of the foundation trust regulator Monitor. The report argues that the continuing obsession at the top of Government with ‘being seen to do something’ means that ministers think and act if they were responsible for almost all significant operational decisions, in effect undermining the independence that was at the heart of creating Foundation Trusts.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Wednesday 17th March, 2010
Blocking the Best: Obstacles to new, independent state schools
By Anna Fazackerley, Rachel Wolf and Alex Massey
This report examines the changes required to make an expanded programme of genuinely independent state schools a reality. The first part examines the barriers which prevent new providers entering the system, including a ponderous approval process and overly restrictive planning and building procedures. The second part looks at restrictions on academy independence which curb innovation, including bureaucratic and poorly-focused accountability mechanisms and interference by central and local government. The third part looks at interventions in cases of school failure.
Press Coverage • TES Connect • ConservativeHome
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Monday 15th March, 2010
Innovation and Industry: A manifesto for manufacturing
By John Willman
Edited by Natalie Evans
Though many people find it hard to believe, the UK is still a major manufacturing economy – the sixth largest in the world. While manufacturing’s share of national income has steadily declined over recent decades, its output was steadily rising until the recession that followed the recent financial crisis. Manufacturers play a vital role in the British economy, providing 2.6 million jobs and around half of export earnings. Sustaining a competitive manufacturing industry in the next few years should be a priority as the economy struggles back to growth.
Press Coverage • Financial Times • Financial Times II • The Times • Newsweek
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
