It’s time to talk about tax relief — how more accountability on tax expenditure could help ease the welfare squeeze

As the Budget approaches we await the details of deep cuts in welfare spending, but the fact that they are coming is beyond doubt…

Credit where it’s due? How to reform and make the most out of Universal Credit

There are some issues where a little bit of knowledge, and a lot of bluster, are all that’s needed for a politician — whether government or opposition — to get through a standard media grilling.

The View That Britain Should Be Learning Lessons From the US Labour Market Is Long Past Its Sell-By Date

Political debates about key policy challenges often tend to idealise — and bastardise — the experience of other countries. Whether it is Finnish…

Who will reap the gains of the recovery?

Poor productivity is only one part of the post-millennial wage disappointment story

The productivity crisis of the last few years is far from over but economic recovery is now well-established and there are at least a few flickers of…

Will the welfare cap stand the test of time?

George Osborne’s welfare cap will be voted on tomorrow. It’s viewed by many as a moment of reckoning for Labour in which it will be caught in a deadly trap: support eye-wateringly tight and binding proposals that threaten the future of the welfare…

The scandal of low-paid care workers

A friend who is a care worker employed by an agency has a moan to me about her work. Repeated 15 minute slots with a client followed by a frantic dash to another part of the city she lives in to do the same again. Care in a hurry, on the cheap. Welcome to home care…

What impact will prolonged austerity have on interest rates?

Time to shine a light on how fiscal and monetary policy interact

With prominent members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) — not least the Governor — lining up in recent weeks to…

The robots are coming. Will they bring wealth or a divided society?

Whether it’s our humdrum reliance on supermarket self-service tills, Siri on our iPhones, the emergence of the drone as a weapon of choice or the impending arrival of the driverless car, intelligent machines are…

Living wage — coming to a city near you

The last time a letter left on a desk caused such a stir it involved an exchange between two senior politicians about the future of the country’s finances. This time the note was from a group of Whitehall cleaners to Iain Duncan Smith asking him to make good…

Rethinking post-crash social policy — IPPR’s Condition of Britain

Another day, another think-tank report. That, no doubt, is how it must feel to news desks, political hacks and listeners of the Today programme alike.