The State We'll Be In

In the wake of the Spending Review, and with major reform planned for key areas of public services, we invited policy experts to set out their view of how the government's reforms may evolve over the period to the next election.

The panel

• Mike Brewer (Director of the Direct Tax and Welfare Research Programme, Institute for Fiscal Studies)
• Professor Simon Burgess (Director, Centre for Market and Public Organisation, Bristol University)
• Anita Charlesworth (Chief Economist, Nuffield Trust)
• Richard Garside (Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies)

Respondents

• Neil O'Brien (Director, Policy Exchange)
• Simon Parker (Director, New Local Government Network)

About the Event

Overall the panel saw the reforms as a leap of faith. They felt time alone would determine if they will be effective, and no guarantee that answers will be clear by the next election. 

In addition, doubts were expressed that the reforms would be radical enough to achieve their stated aims:

• schools and teaching - Simon Burgess thought that there was little in the White Paper that would significantly raise standards and reduce inequality
• health - Anita Charlesworth's analysis was that the systemic changes which make up the bulk of the reform package will not kick in in time to achieve their stated aims by 2015
• criminal justice - Richard Garside pointed out that criminal justice agencies, particularly the police, had been big gainers in spending under the last government, so any reductions were from a high base
• welfare reform - Mike Brewer thought that reforms were along the right lines, making it easier to alter the size and scope of welfare benefits and extend conditionality – though it will be the end of the decade before the real benefits began to flow through.