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

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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Beyond caring: a new funding model for later-life social care

This report from UK think tank Re-State calls for a new Later Life Care Fund to replace England's failing model for funding for older people's social care. New research from Re:State sets out the case for a fundamental overhaul of how later-life social care is funded in England, arguing that the current model is unfair,...

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The law of rule: fixing how Britain regulates

This report from UK think tank Re:State recommends that regulation is used more sparingly and only where it is appropriate. Britain’s regulatory system grows by default. Rules are easy to create, rarely reviewed, and almost never removed. The problem is compounded by weak scrutiny of new regulation, which too often fails to ensure that the...

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Capital at risk: rebooting London’s governance for a new era

This report from UK think tank Re:State explores rebooting London's governance for a new era. London’s governance settlement is now more than 25 years old, designed for the capital as it was a quarter-century ago. While devolution has accelerated across England, London's governance has fossilised. City Hall is underpowered compared to its international peers and...

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Hospital of the future: the last word

This report from UK think tank Re:State distills the key themes and recommendations from across all three reports. The past year, Re:State has been working on a landmark programme titled ‘Hospital of the Future’. This was predicated on the idea that the 'upstream' shift to prevention alone will not remediate the existential crisis hospitals are...

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Procure and simple: a proportionate approach to public procurement

This report from UK think tank Re:State reveals a procurement system which has become too focused on compliance with complex rules and bureaucracy. The Government spends £400 billion a year procuring goods and services, but regularly fails to secure value for the taxpayer from that spending. Public procurement is rife with projects which are late,...

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Operation automation: how to achieve productivity gains in the healthcare system

This report from UK think tank Re:State explores how to achieve productivity gains in the healthcare system. As clinical demand grows both in volume and complexity, health systems worldwide are searching for efficiency quick-wins. Automation is one such innovation. From pharmacy to pathology, its potential is transformative, yet often overlooked. Its benefits are multidimensional. For...

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New house rules

This report from UK think tank Re:State sets out the case for a radical restructure of the Government’s housing and regeneration system. Housebuilding is at the heart of the Government’s agenda. For decades, England’s efforts to develop, build, and regenerate have stagnated, creating a national housing shortage. Efforts to reboot economic growth hinge upon a...

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