Re:State

Re:State (formerly Reform) is a leading Westminster think tank for public service reform. We believe that the State has a fundamental role to play in enabling individuals, families and communities to thrive. But our vision is one in which the State delivers only the services that it is best placed to deliver and that both decision-making and delivery is devolved to the most appropriate level.

We believe the State should act in the long-term interests of the nation, ensuring services and programmes are outcomes-driven and sustainable, and based on a fair funding settlement for current and future generations. We are committed to sound public finances and ensuring taxpayer money is spent wisely.    

We are determinedly independent and strictly non-party in our approach. This is reflected in our cross-party Advisory Board and our events programme which seeks to convene likeminded reformers from across the political spectrum.


Latest reports

The Alternative People survey 2026

This report from UK think tank Re:State discusses the findings from their new Alternative People survey. Re:State’s new Alternative People Survey, run with Civil Service World and Public First, asked 1,747 civil servants how Whitehall is really working. The new Government has moved quickly to reorganise the centre, but the Survey suggests that structural change...

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The scaling state: Rewiring Whitehall for the AI age

This report from UK think tank Re:State argues that the answer is not another digital strategy, but a fundamental change in how the State operates. In recent years, Government has published digital strategies like clockwork. It has invested in digital services, established standards for how they should be built, and set out ambitious plans for...

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A new National Procurement Policy statement

This report from UK think tank Re:State proposes changing the rules for public procurement for the public sector with a new National Procurement Policy Statement. Every year the State spends nearly £400 billion buying goods, services and works from the private sector – 35 per cent of public sector budgets, and roughly one eighth of...

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No job for the centre – the case for devolving employment support

This report from UK think tank Re:State calls for the Government to scrap Jobcentre Plus and create a new model for employment support and benefits administration. Britain’s employment support system is failing the people who need it most. Its backbone – Jobcentre Plus – remains a highly centralised, one-size-fits-all institution, despite the importance of local...

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Benefitting from abroad: International lessons for reforming sickness and disability benefits

This report from UK think tank Re:State examines international lessons for reforming sickness and disability benefits. Britain’s welfare system is failing working-age adults with a disability. It is not working for the people it supports and it is not working for those who fund it. Britain’s extra-cost benefit takes a one-size-fits-all approach that leaves those...

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A new civil service performance management policy

This report from UK think tank Re:State provides a series of ready to implement productsthat can be used to rewire Whitehall. Re:State’s A New Civil Service Performance Management Policy argues that Whitehall’s approach to managing performance is too weak at dealing with persistent underperformance. Drawing on departmental policies obtained through FOI requests and Re:State’s 2025...

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A mid-career fast stream

This report from UK think tank Re:State outlines how a mid-career fast stream would work.  The challenges facing the public sector are daunting, but for many people that’s why they want to work in government. Civil service roles come with the chance to make a real difference to people's lives, and some of the best and...

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Over ruled

This report from UK think tank Re:State offers a practical blueprint for managing Britain's regulatory institutions as a system for the long term. The UK has more than 100 statutory regulators, yet no single institution is responsible for managing them as a coherent system. Successive governments have created new regulators to address individual failures, but...

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Care to stay

This report from UK think tank Re:State calls on local authorities to implement a cross-cutting, place-based strategy for the adult social care workforce. Re:State’s new report recommends an immediate, deliverable, and locally-led approach to addressing the adult social care workforce crisis. While the sector’s underfunding is a key driver of its chronic workforce issues, as...

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Sovereignty by design: security, resilence, and growth

This report from UK think tank Re:State argues for an approach to sovereignty that imposes security and privacy requirements on systems based on the sensitivity of the systems. There are two growing challenges in British technology policy: 1) intricate global supply chains underpin the creation of devices that run the modern economy, and 2) geopolitical...

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Counting the cost: the economic impact of underserving women’s health

This report from UK think tank Re:State states that closing the gap on women's health isn't a cost the Government can avoid, but an investment it can't afford to skip. Re:State's new report, Counting the cost, makes the case for treating women's health as a core economic issue, not just as a niche health topic....

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Taxing for take-off: a new plan for fiscal devolution

This report from UK think tank Re:State sets out a practical but ambitious blueprint for devolving fiscal power in England. Just 5.8 per cent of national taxes are collected at the subnational level in the UK – the lowest share in the G7, and a fraction of France (20.4 per cent), Japan (36 per cent),...

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Design principles for the fiscal devolution roadmap

This report from UK think tank Re;State sets out the design principles for the Treasury’s fiscal devolution roadmap. Fiscal devolution would be a genuinely dramatic shift. It would put firepower behind regional efforts to tackle the productivity puzzle, enabling places to go further in experimenting with approaches tailored to their specific context. It would help...

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From legacy to leadership: upgrading the digital state

This report from UK think tank Re:State makes the case for forcing government staff to take the risk from obsolete IT seriously by creating a new Digital Modernisation Taskforce. The State is inseparable from the digital technology it uses. It is impossible to imagine a government without the software which underpins the everyday interactions with...

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A new civil service code

This report from UK think tank Re:State summarises the current Code and then provides a full, new draft Code to replace the existing one. Criticisms of the Civil Service are a seemingly permanent feature of our politics, with government after government promising to drive ahead with reforms to tackle a Whitehall machine that is too...

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