Public finances
We analyse tax, spending and wider economic policy, looking at how it can most effectively be designed, implemented and where government falls short.
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‘Get Britain Working’ white paper: a bold plan, but will it work?
The government’s plans to tackle worklessness risk being overshadowed by serious policy tensions.
The government needs to clarify the position of industrial strategy within its growth plan
Five steps to make things clearer for business.
Starmer and the farmers: Labour rediscovers its rural problem
Keir Starmer's falling out with the farmers has echoes of New Labour's bust-ups.
Autumn budget 2024
On Wednesday 30 October, Rachel Reeves delivered her first budget as chancellor. We assessed the trade-offs she faced in advance of the budget and analysed the new forecast and the choices she made after.
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Forthcoming and recent events
Government 2025: IfG's annual conference
The IfG will bring together influential speakers and experts to explore the key questions for government in 2025.
What did Rachel Reeves’ budget reveal about the government’s priorities?
In this webinar, Institute for Government experts gave their instant reaction to Rachel Reeves’ first budget.
IfG at the Conservative Party Conference 2024
A series of fringe events on industrial strategy, devolution, public services, net zero and more.
IfG at the Labour Party Conference 2024
A series of fringe events on industrial strategy, devolution, public services, net zero and more.
Key explainers
Current UK fiscal rules
What are the government’s current fiscal rules and is it on track to meet them?
Fiscal rules in the UK since 1997
Fiscal rules are restrictions on fiscal policy set by a government to constrain its own decisions on spending and taxes.
Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is the UK’s official independent economic and fiscal forecaster.
Budgets
Governments require parliament’s approval to spend money, as well as to raise revenue in the form of taxes.
The Treasury
Rachel Reeves must ensure increased investment is spent well – here's what she can do
A more stable, consistent and transparent approach to spending decisions and project delivery is needed.
How to run the next multi-year spending review
Labour's missions need a reformed spending review process.
Does the Treasury wield too much power over government?
Treasury Permanent Secretary James Bowler joined us to discuss the department's role in government.
Strengthening the UK’s fiscal framework
The UK’s fiscal framework, including a flawed set of rules, incentivises bad policy decisions shaped by short-termism and fictional spending plans.
Treasury ‘orthodoxy’
The Treasury wields too much influence across government and dominates strategic thinking at the centre.
How can government ensure it learns effectively from the past in making public finance decisions?
This event discussed The Way the Money Goes: The Fiscal Constitution and Public Spending in the UK.
Tackling rising inflation and slowing growth
The economic crisis facing the UK is very different to the 2008 financial crash and the early 1990s recession – which means a very different response
The Office for Budget Responsibility
Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is the UK’s official independent economic and fiscal forecaster.
How can the OBR improve the way it judges the supply-side effects of policy?
Better forecasts will lead to better budgets.
How does the OBR estimate the demand impact of government policies?
The role of fiscal multipliers in economic forecasting.
Regional economic policy
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Local growth plans
How government should support a place-based approach to its national growth mission.
Funding local growth in England
The next government must end "begging bowl culture" of local growth funding.
‘Levelling up’ from the centre
A new central government approach is needed to reduce regional inequality.
What levelling up policies will drive economic change?
Levelling up will not deliver the changes promised by Boris Johnson unless the next PM’s government is more ambitious in tackling regional inequality.
Industrial strategy
Invest 2035: a promising launch for the industrial strategy
There is much to welcome in the latest incarnation of government industrial strategy.
10 lessons for successfully restarting an industrial strategy
How can the next government design a successful industrial strategy after the general election?
How can the new government’s industrial strategy help boost productivity?
Greg Clark joined our panel to discuss how industrial strategy can help restore productivity growth.
Our work
Regulation
We look at how government uses regulation to achieve its objectives and how rules can most effectively be designed and implemented through regulators.
Budgets
Before and after major fiscal events we look at the key issues facing the government and assess the choices it makes, drawing on expertise across IfG.
Regional economic policy
We assess the government’s approach to reducing regional inequalities, and how it can learn from previous (mostly unsuccessful) attempts.
Tax policy making
How is evidence used in tax policy making?
A key tenet of good policy making, including on tax, is use of the best available evidence.
Overcoming the barriers to tax reform
The UK tax system needs substantial reform, but recent governments have shied away from it because of public resistance.
How to be a tax-reforming chancellor
The tax system is in desperate need of reform. The new government’s majority gives it an opportunity that none has had for the last decade and a half.
Better Budgets: making tax policy better
The Government must change the way it makes tax and budget decisions.
Our public finances team
Gemma Tetlow
Chief Economist
Rachel Reeves has made welcome changes to the fiscal rules
Thomas Pope
Deputy Chief Economist
Rachel Reeves’ first budget is a clear break from the recent past
Rebecca McKee
Senior Researcher
Local growth plans
Giles Wilkes
Senior Fellow