Collection
Our analysis of the parties' proposals in the run-up to the general election 2010.
Analysis of the parties' proposals in the run-up to the general election 2010 is available below.
This work has been kindly funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
Election analysis
Pensions and retirement policy
This election briefing note reviews the policies that the three main UK political parties have announced in their manifestos that relate to state pensions, private pension saving, public sector pensions, and employment at older ages.
4 May 2010
Families and children
This Election Briefing Note, drawing in part on past notes in this series, analyses the manifesto proposals of the three main political parties in the area of families with children.
29 April 2010
Environmental policy proposals
In this election briefing note, we look at the environment policy proposals put forward by the three main UK political parties in their manifestos, as well as the current government's plans for the future.
28 April 2010
Filling the hole: how do the three main UK parties plan to repair the public finances?
This Briefing Note examines what the parties have said (explicitly and implicitly) about the scale, timing and composition of the fiscal repair job ahead, teasing out the differences and similarities.
27 April 2010
Taxes and benefits: the parties' plans
This note discusses the tax and benefit proposals of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, looking at their economic and administrative merits, their distributional impact and their effect of incentives to work and save.
27 April 2010
Education policy
This note looks at trends in education spending under Labour and at the three main parties proposals for early years, schools and higher education.
26 April 2010
Productivity, innovation and the corporate tax environment
In this Briefing Note we focus on changes to the corporate tax environment alongside direct policies that aim to correct market failures.
23 April 2010
Public finance bulletin: April 2010
22 April 2010
UK productivity in the recession
In this Briefing Note, we briefly describe trends in UK productivity over the recent recession and how they compare with those in the US.
23 April 2010
Environmental policy since 1997
In this note, we will examine Labour's record on environmental policy since 1997. We start with a broad overview of the environmental record, looking at key outcomes on environmental taxes, expenditures and emissions and continue by looking in detail at policy developments and outcomes.
20 April 2010
The public finances: 1997 to 2010
This general election briefing note looks at how overall levels of borrowing and debt changed between 1997 and 2010.
19 April 2010
Public spending under Labour
Even more than in previous elections, the appropriate size of the state - measured by public spending as a share of national income - is a key issue.
12 April 2010
The tax burden under Labour
This election briefing note examines the evolution of the tax burden over the last 60 years.
12 April 2010
What has happened to 'Severe Poverty' under Labour?
This election briefing note finds strong evidence of an increase in the rate of severe poverty since 2004-05, mirroring a rise in the official poverty rate, although the rate of persistent poverty does seem to have fallen under Labour, at least until 2007.
7 April 2010
Living standards, inequality and poverty: Labour's record
In this Briefing Note, we assess the changes to living standards that have occurred under the first 11 years of the Labour government and compare these changes with what happened under previous governments.
7 April 2010
Living standards, inequality and poverty: Labour's record
In this Briefing Note, we assess the changes to living standards that have occurred under the first 11 years of the Labour government and compare these changes with what happened under previous governments.
7 April 2010
Tax and benefit reforms under Labour
This Election Briefing Note describes the main tax and benefit reforms since 1997, and shows how they have affected total government revenues.
7 April 2010
It's not easy being green: raising the share of environmental taxes in total receipts
The Coalition agreement reiterated the Conservative's manifesto pledge to "increase the proportion of tax revenue accounted for by environmental taxes". Past experience suggests that this is easier said than done: environmental taxes fell sharply as a share of total receipts during the Labour Government's period in office despite a similar ambition to shift taxes from 'goods' to 'bads'. Unless the Coalition announces new increases in environmental taxes, the latest forecasts show they are unlikely to meet their pledge either.
12 July 2010
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would extend Labour's tax credit cuts for middle-income families
The Labour party is pointing to the fact that the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats are proposing cuts to child tax credit for middle- to high-income families with children. But just what cuts are being proposed and which families would be affected? And how different is this from current policy?
4 May 2010
The parties' policies for families and children: rhetoric vs reality?
All the main UK political parties claim to have put the needs of families at the heart of their campaigns. The Conservative Party has also pledged to end the couple penalty for all couples in the tax credit system. How does the reality - as measured by specific pledges in their manifestos - match up to the rhetoric?
29 April 2010
Conservatives' green tax pledge unlikely to be met
The Conservatives have pledged in their manifesto to "increase the proportion of tax revenues accounted for by environmental taxes, ensuring that any additional revenues from new green taxes that are principally designed as an environmental measure to change behaviour are used to reduce the burden of taxation elsewhere".
28 April 2010
Radical or just radically vague? Manifesto proposals for education reform
On the face of it, there appears to be much agreement between the three main UK parties on education policy: they all propose the creation of new schools or academies, and all plan to introduce a 'pupil premium' that is intended to provide more funds to schools with disadvantaged pupils. On closer examination, however, this apparent consensus fades away - there are real and significant differences between the parties' approaches to the education system.
26 April 2010
After the recession giveaways; what next for output?
Today's GDP figures show that the economy grew by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2010. In the election campaign much has been made of the impact of the timing of spending cuts and tax increases on the ability of the UK economy to sustain this recovery. This is an important issue, but much less attention has been given to the equally important question of how UK growth is likely to fare in the medium term which will be largely determined by efficiency with which we produce goods and services and the extent to which we develop new ideas.
23 April 2010
Not much disagreement on welfare reform
Sensibly, there is general agreement between the three main parties on the need to tackle the large rise in youth and long-term unemployment caused by the recession, and all parties have policies to help deal with the high number of people who are out of work and receiving disability benefits. Today, the IFS publishes an analysis of the welfare and back-to-work policies proposed by the three main UK parties for welfare reform.
21 April 2010
The Liberal Democrats: tighter or looser?
The Liberal Democrat manifesto contains more extensive and more detailed tax and spending proposals than those of the other main UK parties. But taking as given the Liberal Democrats' estimates of the amounts that their proposals will cost and raise, the document is less clear than it could be in setting out how these proposals fit into the party's overall plan to repair the public finances.
14 April 2010
Do the Liberal Democrats' tax plans add up?
The Liberal Democrats propose to increase the income tax personal allowance to £10,000 while keeping the level of income at which people start to pay the higher rate of tax unchanged. They say this giveaway would cost £16.8 billion in 2011-12. They also propose a set of significant tax-raising measures, but do their plans add up?
14 April 2010
No new taxes?
The Conservative manifesto did not tell us anything about their tax and spending plans we did not already know. In particular, it was no more explicit about how much more ambitious the Conservatives would be than the Government in reducing the budget deficit over the medium term. The Conservatives promised only
13 April 2010
Labour leaves tax and spending questions unanswered
The key question for the next Government is what size and combination of public spending cuts and tax increases to implement to repair our public finances. Anyone looking for a more detailed answer from Labour in its manifesto will have been disappointed.
12 April 2010
Do the poorest really pay the most in tax?
The Liberal Democrats have, once again, claimed that the poor pay more of their income in tax than the rich, and that this gap has got larger under Labour. But, by ignoring the fact that the poor get most of this income from the state in benefit and tax credit payments, and by overstating the extent to which indirect taxes are paid by the poor, this comparison is meaningless at best and misleading at worst.
12 April 2010
An efficient debate?
As we watch the parties squabble over how much can be achieved in efficiency savings this year, it is worth remembering that we will not be able to judge with confidence which was right even after the event.
8 April 2010
Taxes and elections: are they by any chance related?
Last week Chancellor Alistair Darling warned us not to expect a giveaway in next week's Budget, while his Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, reassured us that the Government could halve the deficit by 2013-14 without announcing any further tax increases. If both statements prove correct - no pre-election tax giveaway and no new post-election tax takeaway - then this would break the pattern of the last four general elections.
15 March 2010
The Conservative party's council tax freeze
In his 2008 Conservative party conference speech, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne announced that an incoming Conservative government would freeze Council Tax in England for two years. Over the past month, the parties have been disputing how much it would cost, if it were to be implemented in 2011-12 and 2012-13. IFS researchers have re-analysed this policy and find that putting a number on how much it costs is not simple, and this observation explains why.
3 March 2010
Some initial reaction to the Tory / Lib Dem coalition agreement
12 May 2010
Encouraging parents to marry unlikely to lead to significant improvements in young children's outcomes
19 April 2010
Conservatives to recognise one third of marriages in the tax system
9 April 2010
Labour's tax and benefit increases prevent rapid rise in income inequality
7 April 2010
Conservatives plan to cut public spending to cut National Insurance
29 March 2010
Taxes and benefits: the parties' plans
This note discusses the tax and benefit proposals of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, looking at their economic and administrative merits, their distributional impact and their effect of incentives to work and save.
27 April 2010
Not filling the hole
This presentation was delivered at the IFS 2010 Election Briefing on 27 April 2010.
27 April 2010
Filling the hole: how do the three main UK parties plan to repair the public finances?
This Briefing Note examines what the parties have said (explicitly and implicitly) about the scale, timing and composition of the fiscal repair job ahead, teasing out the differences and similarities.
27 April 2010
Election Briefing 2010 Summary
This paper summarises the IFS Election 2010 Briefing notes.
27 April 2010
Opening remarks from the IFS Election 2010 Briefing
Robert Chote, Director of IFS, delivered these opening remarks at the IFS 2010 Election Briefing on 27 April 2010.
27 April 2010
Cohabitation, marriage and child outcomes
This Commentary documents in some detail how children's cognitive and social development differs between married and cohabiting parents, and provides a preliminary assessment of the extent to which such differences might be due to a causal effect of marriage itself.
19 April 2010
The axe is coming soon and it will hurt, warns the IFS
Efficiency savings alone won't be enough to sort out the UK's massive deficit and there will have to be cuts in the quality and/or quantity of public services coupled with cuts to welfare benefits and increases in tax, write Rowena Crawford and Carl Emmerson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
21 April 2010
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