Competition meets Collaboration presents evidence showing that not only do Academies work when it comes to raising standards, but that Academy chains can be even more effective at improving results than single Academies. The report makes recommendations for encouraging the growth of more and bigger academy chains.

Bigger and Quieter: The right answer for aviation examines all of the options for increasing airport capacity in the UK and concludes that the best option would be to place four runways immediately west of the current Heathrow site. This would double the existing capacity to 130 million passengers, cementing it as Europe’s premier hub.

Welfare Reform 2.0 highlights Jobcentre Plus's less than successful record at reducing the number of people on benefits. The report recommends measuring jobcentres on the success they have in getting people to enter and stay in work – not just moving people off benefits. It also calls for a stronger conditionality regime for those working part time or fixed contracts who continue to claim benefits.

Future of Corrections shows that the current system of tagging is in desperate need of reform. A more effective use of tagging, where police and probation officers are directly involved in keeping track of offenders and recommending to prison governors and the courts which criminals should be tagged, could save hundreds of millions of pounds and help the Coalition achieve its goal of stabilising the prison population by 2015.

The UK has enormous potential to be a world-leader in the high-tech and digital economy, but it is tough for start-ups to find enough coders, designers and other highly skilled staff. Bits and Billions looks to the United States, especially California which is home to nearly half of the top 100 digital start-ups in the world, for lessons for UK policymakers.

Simple Things, Done Well shows how a "digital-by-default" government can both reach those older people who do not normally use the internet and provide support for young people looking for work and education opportunities.

Why Aren’t We Building Enough Attractive Homes: Myths, misunderstandings and solutions shows how large developers are ‘playing’ an outdated planning system and fooling the government into potentially wasting taxpayers' money propping up land prices. The report recommends wholesale changes to the planning system to end 'land banking', give local people planning control and get more good new homes built.

This research briefing gives an overview of the public’s attitudes to key issues of public services reform – specifically, issues of choice, quality and the use of more providers from outside the state, including charities, social enterprises and businesses. It uses new polling carried out for this study, as well as examining what is known from existing research.

Rebalancing the pay and pensions of public sector workers so that they are in line with that of equivalent workers in the private sector would save £6.3 billion a year in public spending. This money would be better spent on tackling local unemployment and could create at least 288,000 private sector jobs in some of the areas of the country suffering most from the impact of the recession.