by Shimeon Lee, policy analyst This Saturday marks 77 years since the founding of the NHS. Introduced in 1948, it represented a major shift in the organisation of British healthcare. Yet it is important to remember that healthcare did not begin with the NHS. Before 1948, the British healthcare... Read more...
By Simon Cook, data analyst The government knows the welfare system is under pressure. So does the opposition. Voters can feel it too in the form of higher taxes, stretched public services and a growing sense that the state is doing too much, for too many, with too little... Read more...
By Shimeon Lee, policy analyst This was supposed to be a blog defending the prime minister for sticking to his guns on welfare reform despite rebels in his own party. It was supposed to strike a hopeful tone, arguing that Labour’s massive majority in parliament would enable them to... Read more...
by Callum McGoldrick, researcher It has been a feature of recent governments to state one objective and then legislate to achieve the exact opposite. Labour wants to unleash growth in the economy yet raise the tax burden to ever new highs and the Conservatives saw a huge increase in... Read more...
by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns The state doesn’t have many friends at the moment. Everyone has a bone to pick with it. Whether it’s Londoners sick of seeing TfL turn a blind eye to fare-evasion, learners becoming impatient with the lack of driving test availability, elderly patients waiting for... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher The UK economy desperately needs a growth plan. With debt hovering around 100 per cent of GDP, sluggish productivity, and anaemic private investment, Britain is drifting into decline. One of the easiest wins? Unleashing the full potential of our financial services sector. The financial and insurance... Read more...
by Matthew Bowles, strategic partnerships manager at the Institute of Economic Affairs When I wrote this week in City A.M. about Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, I wanted to draw attention to the impact a particular provision could have for British investors and businesses. With the Bill edging closer... Read more...
by Darwin Friend, head of research Today's Spending Review should have been an opportunity to set priorities and bring some discipline to the public finances. Instead, it confirmed what taxpayers have long feared. Rather than balancing the books, the government is committed to a reckless approach of funding everything,... Read more...
by Mike Denham, former chairman The Bank of England’s ‘quantitative easing’ (QE) scheme is costing taxpayers billions. The Bank’s most recently published estimate puts the total cost at around £150bn, and the final bill is probably going to be even higher. All of it falls on the shoulders of... Read more...
by Ted Newson, Institute of Economic Affairs intern and politics graduate Government intrusion touches nearly every aspect of life in modern Britain. Even a simple pleasure, like enjoying a pint at the pub on a Friday, is being squeezed by the relentless growth of the tax burden driving prices... Read more...
by Edward Bennett The Labour government announced on 25th May that South Western Railway (SWR) had been nationalised in what they described as a “new dawn for rail”. But if history is any guide, this is anything but a bright new beginning. Past experiences with nationalisation and government run... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When the Lifetime ISA (LISA) was introduced in 2017, taxpayers were told it would help first-time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder. With a generous 25 per cent government top-up and the promise of tax-free savings,... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher At a Treasury Committee hearing this week, senior figures from the UK's largest banks -including Ian Stuart, CEO of HSBC UK - urged the government to revisit ring-fencing rules first introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Ring-fencing was designed to protect retail... Read more...
by William Yarwood, media campaign manager Here’s a quote for you: “The theory that higher migration necessarily leads to higher growth doesn’t hold based on the evidence”. You’d be forgiven if you thought those words came from Nigel Farage, or perhaps Kemi Badenoch. But no — those were the... Read more...
by Atlanta Neudorf, operations assistant The TPA team was out and about in Essex last week, talking to local residents on the streets of Canvey Island. According to our research for Town Hall Rich List 2025, not one but two senior executives at Castle Point Borough Council were... Read more...
by Callum McGoldrick, researcher The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sat down on Monday afternoon to quiz industry experts on the use of private finance for infrastructure projects. A key message was that it’s not that the private sector would never want to invest in infrastructure projects, it’s that they... Read more...
by John O'Connell, chief executive A deeply concerning trend is emerging from Spain - a blatant disregard for the rule of law that should cause panic in any country with like-minded governments. Their state-driven campaign of coercion against its own citizens is not merely a policy misstep; it represents... Read more...
by Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager Start as you mean to go on, and that’s exactly the approach that I’ve taken this year when it comes to uncovering waste in the public sector. After a revelation-packed Christmas, where the TaxPayers’ Alliance made headlines for exposing scandal after scandal, 2025 has... Read more...
by Mike Denham, former chairman It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When taxpayers were first introduced to fiscal rules, we were told they would limit public sector debt to prudent and stable levels. Yet three decades later, we find ourselves on the hook for debts of almost £3 trillion... Read more...
by Matthew Bowles, strategic partnerships manager at the Institute of Economic Affairs Potholes have quietly become the tyrants of Britain’s roads – multiplying faster than they’re mended, swallowing tyres, and turning mild-mannered motorists into furious fender-benders. Once a symbol of minor inconvenience, potholes have become a totem of local authority... Read more...
by Callum McGoldrick, researcher Monday brought with it the release of our second research paper in our Britain’s Quangos Uncovered campaign - the quango rich list. Top of the list, and therefore being the highest paid quangocrat in the country, was Channel 4’s chief executive Alex Mahon who received... Read more...
by Andrew Sheldon, Essex County Councillor “We believe this is a witch-hunt against officers, we oppose it, and if this goes ahead, we all know what will happen”. Those words were uttered by the ‘leader of the opposition’ in a public council meeting that up until recently was still... Read more...
by Atlanta Neudorf, operations assistant Earlier this week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its public sector finances report for March 2025, closing out the figures for the financial year 2024-2025. Unsurprisingly, the report makes for grim reading, and confirms that fiscal recklessness is a permanent feature... Read more...
by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns We at the TPA have just launched a new project, Britain’s Quangos Uncovered, which seeks to pull back the curtain on the quango state - the nexus of regulators, committees, advisory bodies, service providers and much more which sit largely out of ministerial... Read more...