This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK summarises insights gained from expert roundtable discussions held in Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle and Belfast. In 2025 we hosted four roundtable discussions in Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle and Belfast. These sessions brought together experts in academia, business, economics, government, public policy and the third sector to grapple with some...

This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK examines pubic perceptions of the UK tax system. This work seeks to address growing concerns about public disengagement with taxation policy and to better understand how people view the current UK taxation system, and its perceived complexities and discrepancies. The research focused on two key questions: What...

This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK looks at how fiscal policy can be reimagined to prioritise and deliver improved wellbeing for people. Governments and societies across the globe are increasingly recognising the importance of improving the wellbeing of their citizens and making this the central goal of their economic and policy ambitions. At...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation recommends a strategic approach to reforming the UK’s often-distortionary £1 trillion tax system. The upcoming Budget is likely to come with a significant downgrade to the fiscal outlook, with pressures from recent policy reversals, rising debt-interest costs, and a gloomier economic outlook. It is plausible that...

This report from UK think tank Labour Together looks at the ethics and expectation of contribution. This essay, by Labour Together’s chief policy adviser, Morgan Wild, argues that this Labour government should root itself in an ethic and expectation of contribution: the actions we take that make other people better off. This can be work,...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation looks at policies to boost the retirement savings of the self-employed. The low share of self-employed workers saving into private pensions and problematic saving behaviours amongst many who are, is leading to concerns that large numbers of self-employed workers are on track for inadequate retirement...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation examines how gambling tax reform can raise revenue for the government and save British horse racing. As the Government considers reshaping the way it taxes remote gambling, this report makes a compelling case against harmonising duties across betting and gaming. Instead, it argues for a...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies looks at taxing smarter for equity, growth, and resilience. At a time of substantial uncertainty for global development, three things are clear. First, aid is retreating substantially, and probably permanently. Second, lower-income countries’ debt servicing costs are spiralling, and their ability to take on...

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society shows how the government can make people better off in highly challenging circumstances. At the next general election, ministers will be judged by Ronald Reagan’s famous question: “are you better off than you were?” When voters considered this question last year, they answered ‘no’ – and...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation explores minimum unit pricing for alcohol and the case for a windfall tax. Evidence shows that minimum unit pricing reduces alcohol harm. However, a key objection to the policy of setting a floor price for alcohol is that it unfairly creates a financial windfall for...

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society makes the case for a fully funded fair pay agreement in order to tackle the workforce crisis and improve the quality of care. The treatment of our social care workforce is a national scandal. England’s 1.6 million care workers suffer from endemic low pay and poor...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation looks at tax, utility bill and social security changes in April 2025. April is always a month of tax changes, and this year, two stand out in their impact on the public finances: the rise in employer National Insurance, and the continuing freezing of the Income...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies looks at how much zakat we can estimate is being paid in Pakistan every year – and where the money is going. Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion of their wealth as zakat, one of the five...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies highlights the significance of informality in understanding gendered tax burdens. Recent policy debates have increasingly focused on the gendered impacts of taxation, yet much of this work is rooted in high-income contexts, overlooking the realities of low- and middle-income countries where most individuals, particularly...

This report from UK think tank CEPEO examines the impact of debt forgiveness in promoting higher education outcomes. This paper examines the impact of a debt forgiveness program implemented in 2011 on education and labour market outcomes for student loan holders who pursued university education in Colombia. The policy generated a sharp discontinuity in the...