Research and analysis

For the first time in over a decade, the NHS broadly stuck to its planned 2025-26 budget – but partly because hospital activity grew more slowly. 

Business rates are blamed for killing the high street. But would cutting them actually help shops and pubs - or simply make landlords richer?

The Scottish Fiscal Commission confirms higher funding this year but warns about a tough fiscal outlook. 

We highlight the key theoretical predictions about rent controls and summarise what empirical research reveals about their effects in practice. 

Around £790 million extra funding has become available this year, but painful trade-offs will be required in 2027–28 and beyond.

All the analysis and more from our IFS Green Budget 2026 to date, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and Barclays.

The Reform UK proposals represent a substantially different vision of what the benefit system should be doing.

A response by the IFS’s David Phillips and João Sousa so the Scottish Finance Committee’s pre-Budget inquiry.

A response by the IFS’s David Phillips and João Sousa so the Scottish Public Service Reform Committee’s pre-Budget inquiry.

GERS 2025–26 shows Scotland’s underlying net fiscal deficit improving but still much higher than the UK as a whole

Is university still worth the cost? We examine graduate earnings, student debt, course value and who really benefits from getting a degree.

New evidence shows the current energy crisis has affected fewer firms than in 2022; two months in, exposed firms responded mainly by raising prices.

What would unfreezing the personal allowance mean for taxpayers and how much would it cost?