Reports

This report from UK think tanks Onward and the Centre for Policy Studies brings renewed focus to London’s housing crisis and the consequences of failing to address it. London is failing to build the homes it needs. In 2024/25, construction started on just 4,170 homes in the capital, even as the population grew by close...

This report from Nesta explores whether changing the rules on political party funding can rebuild public trust in our political system. The topic of political party finance has increasingly captured media and public scrutiny in recent years, culminating with the Rycroft Review in December 2025, which examined foreign financial influence and interference in the UK....

This report from Nesta explores how British people view heat pumps. There are low-carbon solutions already working in homes in this country, and heat pumps can play a major role. They are efficient and reliable – and proven. But compared to other countries in Europe, heat pumps are not very well known or understood in...

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society explores policies to raise living standards. The US-Israeli war on Iran has prompted yet another shock to the budgets of British households, with potentially dire consequences for living standards. This is the second such shock in five years; but the cost-of-living crisis has been decades in...

This report from UK think tank the Coalitiion for Global Prosperity explores China's influence and coercion across the Commonwealth. Consecutive UK governments have underinvested in the UK’s relationships with Commonwealth countries, to the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which has become the largest trading partner and, in many cases, the largest bilateral...

This report from UK think tank RUSI examines how UK defence sector challenges and policy reforms impact private capital investment. This paper analyses how the UK government can increase private capital investment in the UK defence sector to help finance the development of innovative technologies and scaling up production capacity. The paper finds that, while...

This report from Nesta explores integrating early education with family support in England and Scotland. Nesta commissioned Isos Partnership to run an exploratory study of current and ideal levels and types of service integration between ECEC/ELC and wider family support. The report seeks to fill the knowledge gap by drawing on evidence from nine local...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation examines the many arguments for raising Machine Games Duty on Category B machines. In the last budget, the Chancellor almost doubled Remote Gaming Duty (RGD), a tax on online casino gaming because of its particularly harmful impact. In this report, we argue that the same...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation explores how employers can be incentivised to employ NEETs. This briefing note considers how public policy can best incentivise employers to hire more young people in the UK today. We estimate the gross cost to the Exchequer of each additional full-time job created by a range...

This report from UK think tank City-REDI evaluates career coaching for young people at risk of being NEET. PfPP2 provided career coaching and mentoring, group career readiness sessions and employer engagement for 102 young people identified at risk of becoming NEET(not in education, employment or training) in Year 10 in five East Birmingham secondary schools....

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....

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society presents a plan for Labour to build lidos. Traditionally, institutions such as the local cinema, the library, and the leisure centre or swimming pool made the high street and city centre the heart of local communities. However, as urban centres have declined across much of Britain...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities provides evidence to support the Government’s decision to advance fiscal devolution. In the 2026 Mais Lecture, the Chancellor announced a roadmap to fiscal devolution, including tax sharing of income tax to regional leaders across England. This briefing provides evidence to support the Government’s decision to advance...

This report from UK think tank the Coalition for Global Prosperity asks why the system now commands so little political legitimacy and what it might take to restore it. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Europe was confronted with a crisis of staggering proportions: 55 million people had been forcibly displaced across the...

This report from UK think tank HEPI states that paid work has become part of the student experience. 9 in 10 students expect to work during term time – a new report shows paid jobs are now the norm. 87% of applicants expect to work during term time, with a third expecting to work over...

This report from UK think tank the Centre for European Reform explores the past, present and future of the UK's relationship with the EU. A decade after the Brexit referendum, a new essay collection by the Centre for European Reform, ‘Ten years after the Brexit referendum’, brings together leading policy-makers, former politicians and senior officials,...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation explores how Britain lost its trading edge and whether Brexit is to blame. This briefing note unpacks the UK’s export performance in the decade since the Brexit vote. In the five years since 2019, the period in which Britain formally left the EU, UK exports have...

This report from UK think tank Chatham House explores restoring the country’s human capital through state–civil society cooperation. Ukraine’s wartime resilience is due in no small part to its ‘whole-of-society’ model of defence – which requires a high level of mobilization among citizens, local community leaders, philanthropic organizations and the private sector. Civil society stands...

This report from UK think tank European Council on Foreign Relations sets out both the pro-European turn in British opinion and the new categories of voters revealed by ECFR’s polling. A new ECFR polling shows British voters see Brexit as a disaster. They are strikingly open to reintegration with the EU. Three quarters want a...

This report from UK think tank RUSI explores how Colombia's evolving criminal landscape has transformed Ecuador into a central hub for global drug trafficking. This paper provides a critical analysis of how Colombia's evolving criminal landscape has transformed Ecuador into a central hub for global drug trafficking, driving unprecedented violence and challenging regional security and...

This report from UK think tank the Sutton Trust explores how gender, ethnicity and place shape opportunity. Our Opportunity Index provided the most detailed ever look at the geography of opportunity and social mobility in England, revealing great disparities between different areas. However, we also know that average outcomes can hide important differences across gender...

This report from UK think tank the Centre for European Reform examines the impact of leaving the customs union and single market on UK trade. A new CER modelling exercise shows that Brexit has substantially reduced the UK’s trade with the EU, both in goods and services. We find that a customs union with the...

This report from UK think tank the Fabian Society discusses building the national care service. Three years ago, the Fabian Society set out what a National Care Service should look like in a research report, Support Guaranteed. A year later, in its manifesto, Labour drew on the ideas in Support Guaranteed and committed to a...

This report from Nesta examines the potential economic benefits associated with weight loss medications and digital behavioural support. To better understand the wider economic impacts of weight loss medications, Nesta partnered with Oviva to analyse real-world data from around 2,000 NHS patients living with obesity who took part in a digital weight management programme including...

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs examines the role of evidence in public health policymaking in the United Kingdom. This new IEA book, by Dr Christopher Snowdon, exposes the illusion of evidence-based policymaking in Britain through four landmark public health interventions: plain tobacco packaging, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, minimum unit...