Budgets

Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review 2007

Briefing and press release

The 2007 Pre-Budget report and Comprehensive Spending Review was presented to the House of Commons on Tuesday 9th October. IFS held a briefing on Wednesday 10th October.

Press release: initial response

Briefing: Robert Chote's opening remarks

Briefing: presentation slides

Useful publications

The 2007 comprehensive spending review: presentation to the Local Government Association conference

This presentation was given by Carl Emmerson to the Local Government Association conference, "The Comprehensive Spending Review", London, 23rd October 2007.

The 2007 comprehensive spending review: a challenging spending review?

In advance of the publication of the CSR, this briefing note examines what we already know about the CSR settlement, what remains to be announced and what this might imply for government departments and public services.

Green Budget 2007

The IFS Green Budget 2007 examined the options ahead of the March 2007 Budget. Areas covered include the fiscal policy framework, the public finances and spending plans, public sector perfomance, VAT fraud, support for couples through the tax system, environmental tax and the taxation of multinationals. The Green Budget was carried out in collaboration with Morgan Stanley and includes their analysis of the economic outlook and funding and debt management.

Public finances

Since October 2002 IFS has produced monthly bulletins analysing the government's public finance figures.

The UK tax system and the environment

A new IFS report (November 2006) examines in depth the current system of green taxes in place in the UK, their design and effectiveness, and looks at the recent history of green tax revenues and greenhouse gas emissions.

IFS 2005 Election analysis

Throughout the election campaign IFS provided an analysis of public policy issues related to the parties' proposals and to the record of the Labour government since 1997. This analysis drew on past and current research across a number of areas and a series of Election briefing notes were published.

Poverty and inequality

• Poverty and inequality in the UK: 2007. This Briefing Note provides an update on trends in living standards, income inequality and poverty. It uses the same approach to measuring income and poverty as the government employs in its Households Below Average Income (HBAI) publication.
• Estimates of the costs of meeting the Government's child poverty target in 2010/11: update after the Budget 2007. This evidence was submitted to the Treasury Select Committee as part of their Report on the 2007 Budget, 5th report of the session 2006/7, HC 389.
• Micro-simulating child poverty in 2010 and 2020. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report (July 2006) describes how micro-simulation techniques were used to forecast relative child poverty in the UK in 2010 and 2020 under various scenarios for future policy and socio-demographic change.
• The poverty trade-off: work incentives and income redistribution in Britain. A new Joseph Rowntree Foundation report (October 2006) aims to illuminate the trade-off between work incentives and redistribution.

The Pensions Act 2007

An IFS Commentary Pensioner poverty over the next decade: what role for tax and benefit reform? (July 2007) looks at the prospects for pensioner poverty in England over the next decade.A newspaper article (August 2006) examines the proposed changes to state pensions and assesses who will win and who will lose from their implementation.

Fiscal Facts

Fiscal Facts contains facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending. The tables give current and historical rates and thresholds for the main direct and indirect taxes, as well as benefit rates, numbers of claimants and expenditure levels.

There are also 4 briefing notes:

• A survey of the UK tax system (Briefing Note 9, updated December 2006)
• A survey of the UK benefit system (Briefing Note 13, updated December 2006)
• A survey of public spending in the UK (Briefing Note 43, September 2004)
• The government's fiscal rules, describes the government's two fiscal rules and discusses the uncertainty inherent in forecasting the public finances. (Briefing Note 16, updated November 2006)