The Welsh Government published its draft budget for 2015-16. It included proposals for: additional funding of £225m for the Welsh National Health Service; an additional £12m to continue the Schools Challenge Cymru; an increase in the pupil deprivation grant and extension of funding to nursery aged children; protected funding for Flying Start; expansion of the Affordable Housing Land Scheme, Houses into Homes Scheme, Home Improvement Loans, and the Town Centre Loans Scheme; and £40m for transport infrastructure to enable earlier delivery of key projects.
Source: Welsh Government Draft Budget 2015-2016: Priorities for Wales, WG23071, Welsh Government
Links: Budget report | Associated documents | Welsh Government press release | Welsh Government press release | Plaid Cymru press release | WLGA press release | BBC report | BBC report
Date: 2014-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provided grants to some local authorities using the private finance initiative to build new waste management infrastructure, but the term of such contracts (typically 25-30 years) did not offer the necessary flexibility to respond to rapid technological change and evolving policy requirements. The committee said that delays in the Department's intervention in struggling projects led to delays and extra costs, and that their response to the Norfolk PFI waste project had been particularly poor.
Source: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Oversight of three PFI waste projects, Fourteenth Report (Session 2014–15), HC 106, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | BBC report
Date: 2014-Sep
The government auditor began consultation on a new draft code of audit practice for the audit of local public bodies. The consultation would close on 31 October 2014.
Source: Code of Audit Practice (Draft) – Consultation document, National Audit Office
Links: Consultation document | Draft code | NAO press release
Date: 2014-Sep
A report provided findings from a commission that examined options for a new settlement for health and social care in England. Overall, it recommended: moving to a single, ring-fenced budget for the National Health Service and social care, with a single commissioner for local services; for a new care and support allowance; for greater focus on more equal support for equal need (with more social care free at the point of use); and for the use of personal budgets and additional support to promote independence. The report proposed funding changes (including changes to national insurance contributions) to meet the additional costs and said that various forms of wealth taxation should be reviewed, with a view to generating additional resources for health and social care funding.
Source: Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England, A New Settlement for Health and Social Care: Final report, King's Fund
Links: Report | Project | Kings Fund press release | Alzheimers Society press release | CSP press release | NCPC press release | RCN press release | RPS press release | Turning Point press release | UNISON press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Sep
A working paper (from an official advisory body) examined the expected evolution of the United Kingdom public finances between the economic crisis of 2007-08 and the end of the latest forecasting period in 2018-19, including how the public finances were projected to return to balance and how the composition of spending and receipts would have changed.
Source: Jon Riley and Robert Chote, Crisis and Consolidation in the Public Finances, Working Paper 7, Office for Budget Responsibility
Date: 2014-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Department for Communities and Local Government could not be sure that local authorities were achieving value for money with their funding, particularly with regard to 'targeted' grants that were not monitored. It said that, although the Department had placed increasing onus on residents and councillors to scrutinize local authority decisions, there was a risk that the quality and accessibility of data was insufficient, or that councillors might not have the skills or time to fulfil the role. The report said that there needed to be clear systems and rules in place to ensure the transparency and accountability of money spent by cross-border and multi-agency organizations, such as local enterprise partnerships and health and wellbeing boards. The report made a range of recommendations.
Source: Local Government Funding: Assurance to Parliament, Thirteenth Report (Session 2014–15), HC 456, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | CfPS press release
Date: 2014-Sep
Two audit reports looked at contract management across government. The general report said that there were weaknesses in the management of most of the contracts reviewed, with problems found in their administration, including poor governance and record keeping and capacity issues. The second report compared the responses of the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to the problems each had identified with their contract management, and the recent progress made with their improvement plans.
Source: Transforming Government's Contract Management, HC 269 (Session 2014–15), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | Guardian report
Source: Transforming Contract Management, HC 268 (Session 2014–15), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that it recognized the progress made by the Major Projects Authority (MPA) in strengthening project assurance and improving the transparency of information, but that serious weaknesses in the government's project delivery capability and increasing numbers of projects created significant challenges in achieving further improvements. The report said that the MPA, in certain areas of its work, had to rely too heavily on informal means to influence departments. Although a previous committee report had said that MPA reviews should recommend whether or not a project should be continued, and that the Treasury should ensure this was adhered to, the report said this was not found to be happening in practice. It said that the decision to reset the Universal Credit project was taken by ministers, and that the committee was concerned that this was an attempt to hide information and prevent scrutiny. Other points raised in the report included: a lack of prioritization and portfolio management at both a departmental and a cross-government level; insufficient up-front planning of projects; and concerns over the number of higher risk projects in the Department of Health and the Ministry of Defence. The report made a range of recommendations, including that the Treasury should take ownership and responsibility for overseeing the government portfolio as a whole, that there should be a more formal and transparent system to document instances where MPA recommendations were rejected, for the improvement up-front project planning, for more frequent and detailed published information on project delivery, and for the improvement of project delivery skills of ministers, shadow ministers, and permanent secretaries.
Source: Major Projects Authority, Tenth Report (Session 2014 15), HC 147, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Aug
A report examined how welfare reform and austerity policies affected work with vulnerable families in Scotland. It said that more families were presenting to services with crises that arose from the cumulative effects of benefit sanctions, benefit delays, and price inflation, and that this also had an impact on pre-existing health and relationship difficulties. Services had reported an increase in complex cases, and a need to delay intensive family work in order first to stabilize home conditions and ensure that basic material needs were met. It said that resource limitations were leading to services focused on those with more severe needs and early years work, which meant that opportunities for early intervention and work with vulnerable teenagers may be missed. The report discussed the findings in the context of ongoing policy work in Scotland.
Source: Kirsty Scullin and Susan Galloway, Challenges from the Frontline: Supporting families with multiple adversities in a time of austerity, NSPCC Scotland/Barnardo's Scotland
Date: 2014-Aug
The Welsh Government published a Bill designed to: set a framework within which public authorities would seek to ensure the needs of the present were met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (the sustainable development principle); put into place well-being goals (defined in the Bill); set out how the work towards those goals would be demonstrated; put Public Services Boards and local well-being plans on a statutory basis and simplify existing requirements as regards integrated community planning; and establish a Future Generations Commissioner for Wales to advocate for future generations, and to advise and support Welsh public authorities in carrying out their duties under the Bill.
Source: Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Bill, Welsh Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Written statement
Date: 2014-Aug
A special issue of a journal examined the ethics of reform of welfare policy across European countries since the economic crisis, the policy discourse associated with austerity policy, and the impacts of the reforms on patterns of power, inequality, and injustice in different European nations.
Source: Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Volume 22 Issue 2
Links: Table of contents
Notes: Articles included:
Adam Whitworth and Elle Carter, 'Welfare-to-work reform, power and inequality: from governance to governmentalities'
Daniel Edmiston, 'The age of austerity: contesting the ethical basis and financial sustainability of welfare reform in Europe'
Dan Heap, 'The rights and responsibilities of working-age sick and disabled benefit claimants in austerity Europe'
Lee Gregory, 'Resilience or resistance? Time banking in the age of austerity'
Date: 2014-Aug
A report said that youth services in the United Kingdom had lost at least 60 million of funding between 2012 and 2014, with around 350 youth centres closed as a result of the cuts. The report called for a stronger statutory base for youth services, to be run in-house by local authorities.
Source: The UK's Youth Services: How cuts are removing opportunities for young people and damaging their lives, Unison
Links: Report | Unison press release
Date: 2014-Aug
A report for the equal rights watchdog examined the extent to which cumulative impact assessment techniques could be used to analyze the equalities impacts of tax, welfare, and spending policies. It said that modelling cumulative impact assessment by equality group was feasible, although there were a number of data constraints that should be considered. The report examined the impacts of recent tax and welfare reforms and said that: the impacts were more negative for families containing at least one disabled person, particularly a disabled child, and that these negative impacts were particularly strong for low-income families; that women were more negatively affected by the direct tax and welfare changes compared with men (although the results were sensitive to assumptions that had been made); that households containing younger adults benefited from changes to direct taxation; and that, in terms of public services, Black and Asian households lost out more than other groups. The report recommended that the Treasury's distributional impact analysis of tax and benefit changes should incorporate analysis by groups sharing different protected characteristics, and that the Treasury should consider its approach to equality impact assessment for the next Spending Review.
Source: Howard Reed and Jonathan Portes, Cumulative Impact Assessment: A Research Report by Landman Economics and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Research Report 94, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Aug
A report said that cuts in welfare spending in the United Kingdom were affecting people in work more than those on benefits, that pensioners were also affected by a substantial proportion of cuts, and that the introduction of universal credit would not improve the overall impact on working families.
Source: Benefit Cuts by Household Type: Who has been hit by the government's benefits cuts?, Trades Union Congress
Links: Report | TUC press release
Date: 2014-Aug
A report for the equal rights watchdog examined six case studies of outsourced cleaning services to consider how the nature and influence of procurement shaped employment practices and working conditions in the commercial cleaning sector, and outlined key implications for improving policy and practice.
Source: Damian Grimshaw, Jo Cartwright, Arjan Keizer, and Jill Rubery, with Karl Hadjivassiliou and Catherine Rickard, Coming Clean: Contractual and procurement practices, Research Report 96, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Aug
A report examined National Health Service expenditure between 2010 and 2014. It said that, until the previous year, the National Health Service had been coping well with increasing demand and the consequences of public sector austerity, but that the system was now showing signs of severe financial pressure, with the ability to make savings diminishing alongside a continued increase in demand for services.
Source: Sarah Lafond, Sandeepa Arora, Anita Charlesworth, and Andy McKeon, Into the Red? The state of the NHS' finances, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Nuffield Trust press release
Date: 2014-Jul
A report provided an estimate of the overall costs of child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom. It said that such costs were difficult to estimate and were clouded by the levels of potential unreported abuse, but a 'low estimate' for 2012 was £1.6 billion. The report said that the majority of the costs fell on the victim through lost productivity, but costs to the Exchequer were also significant in areas such as health, the criminal justice system, and children's social care services.
Source: Aliya Saied-Tessier, Estimating the Costs of Child Sexual Abuse in the UK, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Jul
A special issue of a journal examined privatization of provision across a range of policy areas.
Source: Economic Affairs, Volume 34 Issue 2
Links: Table of contents
Notes: Articles included:
Peter Zweifel, 'Does privatisation contribute to the performance of a health care system?'
Richard Wellings, 'The privatisation of the UK railway industry: an experiment in railway structure'
Guy Opperman, 'Change your prison, change your outcomes, change your community'
Date: 2014-Jul
An article examined the exercise of rationality in the work of Individual Funding Request panels in the National Health Service in England. It said there was a delicate balance between being 'human' and being 'rational' that created a dilemma for panels. It suggested placing greater value on narrative ethics as an aid to understanding resource allocation.
Source: Jill Russell and Trisha Greenhalgh, 'Being "rational" and being "human": how National Health Service rationing decisions are constructed as rational by resource allocation panels', Health, Volume 18 Issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Jul
An audit report said that government spending on grants accounted for 41 per cent (£292 billion) of its total expenditure of £715 billion, but its effectiveness was undermined by a lack of co-ordination and by central government not having information on the grant programmes that were currently operating. It said that different parts of government provided grants to the same recipients and a lack of information meant that the government typically could not identify whether recipients were receiving other payments. Some departments were found to use grants without systematically considering alternatives, and departments did not consistently evaluate the implementation and outcomes of their grant programmes. The report made recommendations, including for better information sharing.
Source: Government Grant Services, HC 472 (Session 2014–15), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release
Date: 2014-Jul
A report by a committee of the National Assembly for Wales examined budgetary best practice and its applicability to Wales. It also considered the additional proposed devolved powers contained in the Wales Bill, which was currently progressing through the United Kingdom parliament.
Source: Budgetary Best Practice and its Applicability to Wales, Finance Committee, National Assembly for Wales
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Jul
An audit report said that there were serious risks to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs if the programme to replace the department's existing technology contract failed to meet its objectives by June 2017 when the existing contract ended. The report said that the contract was at odds with current government policy on technology procurement, that changes commissioned during the existing contract had led to the department paying above market prices, and that HMRC had traded away their negotiating power, thus hindering their ability to achieve strategic value from the contract. The report warned that HMRC now faced a considerable challenge to negotiate a new contract while developing its capacity for the move to digital services.
Source: Managing and Replacing the Aspire Contract, HC 444 (Session 2014–15), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release
Date: 2014-Jul
An audit report examined the outcomes from the National Fraud Initiative, a data matching exercise undertaken every two years by the Audit Commission to help prevent and detect fraud, overpayment, and error in the public sector in England. The report also discussed transition arrangements for the transfer of responsibilities to the Cabinet Office from April 2015.
Source: National Fraud Initiative: National report, Audit Commission
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release
Date: 2014-Jun
A report by a committee of MPs examined key elements of the proposals for the second variant of the Private Finance Initiative (known as PFI 2), to determine whether they were likely to address the principal concerns that the committee had previously raised with regard to the original PFI programme. The report raised concerns regarding accounting and budgetary incentives, value for money, and issues regarding private investment.
Source: Private Finance 2, Tenth Report (2013-14), HC 97, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO
Date: 2014-Jun
A report examined the decision taken by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey to terminate a suite of crime, case, intelligence, and custody technology improvements, known as the SIREN information/communications technology project, in 2013. It said that the delays suffered by the SIREN project had caused it to be overtaken by changes in external and strategic considerations. At the time of cancellation, it had incurred a cost to date of £14.86 million, and the report said that the decisions to terminate the project and proceed with a different solution were reasonable as an exit strategy. The report examined weaknesses that had impacted on the project's delivery, including the lack of experience of the Force and its supplier in managing a project of this size, and inexperience in the chosen delivery methodology (Agile), which had led to delays and poor management of risk, as well as the non-delivery of project benefits. The report made recommendations for the PCC and Chief Constable to consider when undertaking future large scale projects.
Source: Termination of the Siren ICT Project, Grant Thornton
Links: Report | Grant Thornton press release | Surrey Police press release | BBC report
Date: 2014-Jun
A report examined the decision taken by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey to terminate a suite of crime, case, intelligence, and custody technology improvements, known as the SIREN information/communications technology project, in 2013. It said that the delays suffered by the SIREN project had caused it to be overtaken by changes in external and strategic considerations. At the time of cancellation, it had incurred a cost to date of £14.86 million, and the report said that the decisions to terminate the project and proceed with a different solution were reasonable as an exit strategy. The report examined weaknesses that had impacted on the project's delivery, including the lack of experience of the Force and its supplier in managing a project of this size, and inexperience in the chosen delivery methodology (Agile), which had led to delays and poor management of risk, as well as the non-delivery of project benefits. The report made recommendations for the PCC and Chief Constable to consider when undertaking future large scale projects.
Source: Termination of the Siren ICT Project, Grant Thornton
Links: Report | Grant Thornton press release | Surrey Police press release | BBC report
Date: 2014-Jun
A report evaluated a trial of the use of payment by results (PbR) for children's centre services to incentivize a local focus on their core purpose. The trial involved 26 areas covering 27 local authorities (LAs). It said that the trial had influenced a focus on the core purpose in a small number of LA areas and was associated with enhanced partnership working with health, although impact was mostly driven by the trial per se rather than by PbR, and by the national measures rather than the financial aspects. The report said lessons from the trial were likely to continue to emerge in the future.
Source: Frontier Economics and the Colebrooke Centre, Payment by Results in Children's Centres Evaluation, Research Report 292, Department for Education
Date: 2014-Jun
An article examined the drivers of the development of strategic commissioning in the United Kingdom. It said that differences between government departments had allowed scope for local variations, which were exploited by local government, enabling greater innovation than would have otherwise been possible. It discussed local resistance to central government agendas, and the overall implications for public services in the context of fiscal austerity.
Source: Tony Bovaird, Ian Briggs, and Martin Willis, 'Strategic commissioning in the UK: service improvement cycle or just going round in circles?', Local Government Studies, Volume 40 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Jun
The government and the Rail Executive began consultation on the planned approach for securing Great Western franchised rail services at the end of the current direct award franchise in 2015, and on a proposed franchise specification, with a focus on changes planned during the following five year period. The consultation would close on 26 June 2014.
Source: Great Western Specification Consultation, Department for Transport/Rail Executive
Links: Consultation document | DT press release
Date: 2014-May
A paper examined the relative impact of the 2014 Budget for women and men in the United Kingdom. It said that personal tax measures such as increased ISA limits and personal allowances advantaged more men than women, and that changes to social security and cuts to public services each had a disproportionate effect on women. It discussed employment rates for women, and said that the policy to end annuities might advantage women who retired with a number of small pensions. The paper also considered the impact of housing measures, and affordability issues in both housing and childcare. It called for investment in social infrastructure, public transport, green energy, and other physical infrastructure, and the diversification of the labour force in male-dominated industries.
Source: The Impact on Women of Budget 2014: No recovery for women, Women's Budget Group
Links: Report | Briefing | WBG press release
Date: 2014-May
A think-tank report examined commissioning in the public sector, and developed a 'user guide', based on practice in Northamptonshire County Council. It outlined a need for further work to develop capacity to identify desired outcomes that could be translated into meaningful and enforceable contractual requirements, alongside a more pragmatic approach to risk sharing between the commissioning body and the service provider.
Source: John Nicholson, Effective Commissioning: An NLGN white paper, New Local Government Network
Links: Report
Date: 2014-May
A new book examined austerity policies in Europe and the United States of America, arguing that policies had fuelled recession rather than stimulated growth. It discussed organized opposition, and proposed alternative economic, regulatory, and organizational reforms.
Source: Dexter Whitfield, Unmasking Austerity: Opposition and alternatives in Europe and North America, Spokesman Books
Links: Summary
Date: 2014-Apr
A report examined official estimates of liabilities for the main public sector pension schemes, arguing that the method of calculation used an 'artificially high' discount rate that underestimated the liability.
Source: Neil Record, The £600 Billion Question: How public sector pension liabilities are being undervalued at the expense of future generations, Intergenerational Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Apr
A think-tank report examined the long-run cost of providing student loans, how this varied across the graduate earnings distribution, the uncertainty around the estimates, and the impact of potential changes to the terms of student loans. It said that the 2012 reforms to higher education funding in England might do little to reduce the total taxpayer contribution per student, although the outcome remained uncertain and would depend upon future graduate earnings.
Source: Claire Crawford, Rowena Crawford, and Wenchao Jin, Estimating the Public Cost of Student Loans, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Report | IFS press release | Russell Group press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Apr
A report considered the first year of the Public Services (Social Value) Act, which placed a duty on government, local councils, the National Health Service, and other public bodies in England and Wales to consider how they might improve the economic, social, and environmental well-being (or 'social value') of an area when they buy and commission services. It said that there had been some progress during the year, but change had been slow, awareness of and engagement with the Act was not yet high enough, and the measurement of social impact remained a challenge. The report made recommendations, including for specialist training.
Source: The Future of Social Value, Social Enterprise UK
Links: Report | SEUK press release | Landmarc press release
Date: 2014-Apr
A new book examined the constitutional framework for management of the United Kingdom economy. It examined different meanings of an economic constitution, areas of economic management, key institutions, and the international context, and considered the coherence, governance, and accountability of economic management in the UK.
Source: Tony Prosser, The Economic Constitution, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary | CMPO press release
Date: 2014-Apr
A paper examined the viability of payment by results (PbR) as an effective method for procuring public services and, in particular, for harnessing innovation and service quality from the voluntary sector. It considered the financial and governance implications of PbR, its impact on the innovative capacity of the voluntary sector, and whether the outcomes-based commissioning model in PbR allowed for increased personalization of services to meet individuals' needs. It said that PbR could make organizations risk averse, prevent some from taking on contracts, and prevent the innovation of new ways of working. It outlined a range of problems within typical PbR models and made recommendations, including for commissioners to make use of up-front payments to ease cash-flow barriers, and provide payments for intermediate outcomes.
Source: Fiona Sheil and Ruth Breidenbach-Roe, Payment by Results and the Voluntary Sector, National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Links: Report | NCVO press release
Date: 2014-Apr
The government published a database of Budget and Autumn Statement policy measures announced since 1970.
Source: Office for Budget Responsibility
Links: File | OBR announcement
Date: 2014-Apr
The coalition government presented its 2014 Budget statement. National income growth forecasts had been revised upwards from 2.4 per cent to 2.7 per cent in 2014 and from 2.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent in 2015, with forecasts of 2.6 per cent in 2016, 2.6 per cent in 2017 and 2.5 per cent in 2018. The public sector net debt had been revised downwards, to peak at 78.7 per cent of national income in 2015-16 before falling year on year to 2018-19. The main Budget measures included:
• Government departments required to find year on year efficiency savings, with cuts of £119 billion in 2015-16;
• Welfare cap set at £119.5 billion for 2015-16 with year on year increases to 2018-19 (to be included in the Charter for Budget Responsibility);
• Expansion of the Troubled Families programme in 2014-15;
• Increase in childcare costs cap to £10,000 per annum per child, against which up to 20 per cent of costs could be claimed by parents, or 85 per cent if parents paid income tax and were on universal credit (this had been previously announced, but was confirmed in the Budget);
Additional early years premium funding for schools (this had been previously announced, but was confirmed in the Budget);
• Increase in personal tax allowance to £10,500 from 2015 and increase in National Minimum Wage to £6.50 in October 2014;
New ISA provisions, with an increase in the annual limit to £15,000; new government savings bonds for over 65s; increased limits for Premium Savings Bonds; proposed removal of the requirement for defined contribution pension funds to be converted to annuities; and changes to taxation of pensions (a consultation paper on pensions was published alongside the Budget);
• Doubling of the annual investment allowance for companies, changes to export funding, and additional funding for apprenticeships;
• Energy-related measures, including: changes to the carbon price support cap; support for carbon capture and storage, oil, and gas initiatives; and compensation for energy costs for energy intensive industries;
• Infrastructure measures, including: funding for repairs to flood defences and roads; government guarantee for the Mersey Gateway Bridge; funding via a gain share mechanism for Greater Cambridge transport and infrastructure proposals; and grants for cathedral repairs; and
Housing measures, including: extension of the Help to Buy equity loan scheme to March 2020; loans for smaller developers and a repayable funding scheme for self-build; loan funding for regeneration of large housing estates; and a new garden city at Ebbsfleet, Kent (this had been previously announced, but was confirmed in the Budget).
Source: Budget 2014, HC 1104, HM Treasury, TSO
Links related to Budget: Report | Fiscal outlook | Overview of taxation measures | Speech | Pensions consultation | HMT press release 1 | HM Treasury press release 2 | DCLG press release | Northern Ireland Office press release | Scotland Office press release | Wales Office press release | Welsh Government press release | 4Children press release | Age UK press release | Action for Children press release | Barnardos press release | BCC press release | Childrens Society press release | CPAG press release | CPAG Scotland press release | CIH press release | Fawcett Society press release | Gingerbread press release | IEA press release | IFS analysis | LGA press release 1 | LGA press release 2 | LGA press release 3 | Oxfam press release | Plaid Cymru press release | PwC press release | RCGP press release | Unite press release | BBC report 1 | BBC report 2 | Guardian report 1 | Guardian report 2 | Guardian report 3 | Inside Housing report | Inside Housing report 2 | New Statesman report | Telegraph report
Links related to Ebbsfleet announcement: LGA press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report 1 | Inside Housing report 2 | Inside Housing report 3 | Telegraph report
Links related to childcare and pupil premium announcements: Government consultation response | Written ministerial statement | Barnardos press release | Citizens Advice press release | CBI press release | Gingerbread press release | IFS comment | JRF press release | NCT press release | BBC report | Guardian report | New Statesman report | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government was failing to manage performance of private sector providers of public services. It said that a more professional and skilled approach was required to managing contracts and contractors, and that contractors needed both to demonstrate high standards of ethics and to be more transparent about their performance and costs. The report said that the contracting process at present excluded small and medium sizes businesses and that the granting of contracts had led to the evolution of 'privately-owned public monopolies'. The committee would return to this issue in future work.
Source: Contracting Out Public Services to the Private Sector, Forty-seventh Report (Session 2013–14), HC 777, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Mar
A think-tank report said that official debt figures from both European Union and United States of America governments did not take into account future pension and healthcare obligations, which would increase as populations aged. The report said that the United Kingdom government would need to reduce public spending by one-quarter, cut health and social protection spending by half, or raise taxes significantly, in order to meet future spending obligations.
Source: Jagadeesh Gokhale, The Government Debt Iceberg, Institute of Economic Affairs
Links: Report | Summary | IEA press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Mar
A report examined public finances and policy options in a range of policy areas, in the light of existing economic forecasts. The discussions included: perceived risks in the Chancellor's deficit reduction plans; the housing market and housing policy; incomes and inflation across the income distribution; and policy options for increasing state support for childcare, improving the taxation of private pensions, and reforming business rates. The report said that the full effect of the government's spending cuts had not yet been felt, with a further 60 per cent still to be rolled out.
Source: Carl Emmerson, Paul Johnson, and Helen Miller (eds.), The IFS Green Budget: February 2014, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Report | Summary | IFS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Feb
A think-tank report examined the options available to the next United Kingdom government for additional tax revenues, and assessed the potential of three groups of taxes: 'less unpopular' taxes, such as the 'mansion tax'; mainstream taxes, such as changes to VAT or national insurance; and new taxes, such as taxes on wealth, land or financial transactions.
Source: Amna Silim, Taxing Times: Where might additional tax revenues be found?, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Jan
A report examined recent changes in public sector commissioning. It said that there had been significant change over the past three years, and that moves away from short, process-based contracts were almost universally welcomed: but commissioners expressed doubts about their ability to understand outcomes and to measure and reward providers' contributions appropriately. The report said that commissioners had confidence in the abilities of smaller providers: but payment by results made some providers unwilling to innovate, while more than 80 per cent of providers were concerned about the overall financial risks of payment by results. It said that some providers raised concerns about perverse consequences, and their impact on those with the most complex needs. The report made recommendations.
Source: Dan Crowe, Tom Gash, and Henry Kippin, Beyond Big Contracts: Commissioning public services for better outcomes, Collaborate/Institute for Government
Links: Report | IfG press release
Date: 2014-Jan
A new book examined the framing and adaptation of participatory budgeting in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It explored participatory budgeting's national characteristics and potential for realizing a more democratic society.
Source: Anja Rocke, Framing Citizen Participation: Participatory budgeting in France, Germany and the United Kingdom , Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Notes: Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making in which people decide how to allocate a public budget.
Date: 2014-Jan
A think-tank report examined inequalities in economic performance and growth across the United Kingdom and, more particularly, in the North of England. The report made recommendations for a more spatially targeted, localised, and strategic approach to the 2015 spending review.
Source: Ed Cox, Graeme Henderson, and Luke Raikes, Rebalancing the Books: How to make the 2015 spending review work for all of Britain, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | IPPR press release
Date: 2014-Jan