IPPR

IPPR is an independent charity working towards a fairer, greener and more prosperous society. We are researchers, communicators, and policy experts creating tangible progressive change, turning ideas that seem impossible into common sense realities. Working across the UK, IPPR, IPPR North and IPPR Scotland are deeply connected to the people of our nations and regions, and the issues they face.  

We have helped shape national conversations and progressive policy change for more than 30 years. From making the early case for the minimum wage and tackling regional inequality, to proposing a windfall tax on energy companies, IPPR’s research and policy work has responded directly to the crises facing society. 

Today, our work drives social, democratic, environmental and economic progress by securing: 

  • Well-funded and reformed public services (health, care, housing, education) and social security that ensures everyone has access to the basics they need to flourish. 
  • A renewed democracy which gives everyone a voice in society, ensures equal access to our rights and passes power down to people, places, and communities. 
  • A modern, green economy that delivers prosperity and justice to all people and places through actively shaping markets for social good and tackling concentrations of wealth and power. 

Our major projects all aim to support this. IPPR’s Centre for Economic Justice is reshaping the debate on the UK economy, building on our landmark commission report, Prosperity and Justice. Our Fair Transition Unit looks at how to achieve net zero and restore nature both quickly and fairly, expanding on the findings of our cross-party Environmental Justice Commission. Through our Commission on Health and Prosperity we are making the case that good health is a keystone of a strong economy; and we are addressing the challenge of place-based inequalities through our work on progressive ‘levelling up’. 

IPPR receives funding from a wide range of sources including leading trusts and foundations, and has been awarded the highest rating (A) for transparency from Open Democracy’s Who Funds You? project.


Latest reports

Inflation, profits and market power

This report from UK think tank IPPR proposes major policy shifts and argues in favour of a new direction for competition policy. In the aftermath of the pandemic, as the global economy rebounded it was accompanied by a dramatic rise in inflation, reaching levels not seen since the 1970s, peaking at 9 and 11 per...

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Improvement through empowerment

This report from UK think tank IPPR sets out how ‘improvement through empowerment’ - of both teachers and schools, can drive excellence in education. We need to shift the drivers of better schooling from high stakes top-down accountability to a system which empowers schools and teachers to innovate and improve. Policymakers in recent decades have...

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Making markets in practice

This report from UK think tank IPPR argues that there is an urgency for policymakers to implement a green industrial strategy. With Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPs and Science Act and the EU’s Green Industrial Plan, industrial policy is back in vogue. Yet after years of neglect in favour of hands-off, agnostic policymaking, governments...

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Unlocking local action on clean air

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at unlocking local action on clean air. There is an urgent need to address air pollution. Preventing the premature deaths of up to 43,000 people per year in the UK and reducing cases of cancer, strokes, heart attacks, dementia and asthma would be reason alone. Those who...

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Charting new waters

This report from UK think tank IPPR is a progressive response to the Channel crossings. The surge in arrivals from people crossing the Channel in small boats has become an increasingly charged issue for government. The number of detected arrivals rose sharply from 299 in 2018 to 45,744 in 2022, and there have been more...

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Artificial intelligence for public value creation

This report from UK think tank IPPR suggests that governments could outline a positive vision for how AI can help create public value. The eyes of the world will be on this increasingly powerful technology as the UK holds a global AI safety summit in November. However, early signs indicate the discussions will lack ambition....

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From missed chances to green advances: the case for a green industrial strategy

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at the case for a green industrial strategy. The transition to net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century. But claims of UK leadership in capturing the economic benefits of the transition to a green economy are wide of the mark. While the UK has...

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Towards real social security: embedding a long-term approach to universal credit

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at how we can build a strategic, ambitious and collaborative response to improve our social security system. Our safety net is failing to protect people from being pulled into poverty. Universal credit is simply inadequate to meet day to day living costs. This means despite temporary cost...

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Fairer winds: workers’ rights in the age of transition

This report by UK think tank IPPR looks at how the UK can learn from the successes and failures of fair transition policies in the US and EU. Countries around the world are starting to build just transition principles into state-led green industrial strategies. Advanced economies, including the US and the EU’s member states, are...

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Fairer taxes, smarter spending: A recipe for sustainable growth

This report by UK think tank IPPR looks at how rising tax levels can enable better living standards. The UK economy has much bigger problems than high levels of tax. Rising long-term sickness is impacting labour supply, while the education and health systems are struggling with recruitment and staff capacity. Public infrastructure is quite literally...

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Parallel lives

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at regionally rebalancing wealth, power and opportunity. Our economy and democracy are not yet designed to help all places thrive. Reducing regional inequality, or levelling up, remains imperative for both improving the fairness of society and the efficiency of our economy. If the UK was more regionally...

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Out of kilter

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at how to rebalance our school system to work for people, economy and society. The social contract - that each generation should do better than the previous one - is increasingly under strain. Progress is stalling or even going into reverse, with young people often more likely...

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More than money: moving towards a relational approach to retrofitting

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at why retrofitting policies are failing to stimulate the market and attract more interest. The UK has a mountain to climb when it comes to home retrofitting. By 2028 the UK will need to reach a peak of installing nearly two million energy efficiency measures like loft...

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For public health and public finances

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at reforming health and social care. People are spending more years in sickness than ever before. The number of deaths that could have been avoided with timely healthcare or public health interventions is much higher in the UK than in all other comparable European nations. This is...

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The ambivalent union

This report from UK think tank IPPR looks at findings from the State of the Union survey. Brexit revealed stark differences in attitudes across the UK. It not only revealed different attitudes within and between the UK’s constituent units towards the European Union but it also revealed the ambivalence of attitudes towards the union of...

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