Institute for Fiscal Studies

17/06/2025

Our Director Paul Johnson spoke to Emily Maitlis about his fourteen years running the IFS and the big economic events that happened in his tenure.

Watch the interview in full here:

Emily Maitlis interviews Paul Johnson in Westminster on his time at the IFS and the big economic events that occurred over his tenure - austerity, Brexit and...

09/06/2025

This Wednesday the UK government will set out budgets for individual public services like the NHS and government departments over the coming years.

📺 IFS Senior Research Economist Max Warner explains what we can expect from this week's Spending Review:

26/04/2025

📊 : ONS figures released this week show that government borrowing for the financial year just past was £152 billion. This is £15bn higher than was forecast at the Spring Statement only last month, and £65 billion, or 75%, higher than was forecast in March 2024.

08/02/2025

📈 : The increase in land and building transaction tax (LBTT) in the latest Scottish Budget means someone buying a £500k property to rent out will need to pay £63,350 in tax on top of the price, compared to £23,350 for a main home.

Read our Scottish Budget report on Scotland's tax strategy: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/assessing-scottish-tax-strategy-and-policy

01/02/2025

📈 : Tax rises announced in the October 2024 Budget – on top of those announced over the 2019–2024 parliament – are helping push UK government revenues as a share of national income to near-record levels.

In the 1980s, UK government revenues were far below the average of other peer countries, but have been catching up since the mid-1990s.

Read our briefing on how UK government revenues compare to other countries: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/uks-near-record-government-revenues-are-not-uncommon-internationally

18/01/2025

📊 : The shape of public spending on education has changed significantly since the early 1990s.

While the older the pupils being taught, the higher the public spending per pupil per year is still broadly true, the relative differences between stages are much smaller.

📗 For more analysis of how education spending in England has changed over time, read our annual report funded by the Nuffield Foundation: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/annual-report-education-spending-england-2024-25

📈 Visit our education spending site for summaries and interactive data for each stage of education: https://ifs.org.uk/microsite/education-spending

05/01/2025

Sure Start, the national programme which provided universal, holistic support during the early years, significantly reduced serious youth crime.

📗 Read our report: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/effect-sure-start-youth-misbehaviour-crime-and-contacts-childrens-social-care

04/01/2025

📊 : PM2.5 (the most harmful air pollutant) emissions have declined in England from most sources since 2003, though domestic combustion emissions have increased.

Three-quarters of these domestic combustion emissions came from woodburning in 2022.

Read our report on air pollution in England since 2003 here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/exposure-air-pollution-england-2003-23

02/01/2025

Sure Start, England’s first large programme to provide holistic support to families with children under five, greatly improved disadvantaged children’s GCSE results.

📗 Read the full report here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/short-and-medium-term-impacts-sure-start-educational-outcomes

31/12/2024

The Government has set an ambition to raise the employment rate to 80%.

How might the government achieve its aim?

This comment explores what we can learn from history and international examples.

📖 Read here: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/governments-80-employment-rate-target-lessons-history-and-abroad

29/12/2024

Incomes for poorer pensioners have fallen behind, growing just 5% in real terms since 2011.

📈 The relative poverty rate for pensioners has increased from 13% in 2011 to 16% in 2022 as a result.

📗 Read the report on 'how have pensioner incomes and poverty changed in recent years' here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-pensioner-incomes-and-poverty-changed-recent-years

28/12/2024

: The government would need to move 2.1 million people into work to hit their employment rate target of 80%. To achieve this by 2029 would require the fastest employment growth on record.