The outlook for living standards

Understand this issue

How is tax damaging the housing market?

podcast

We discuss how taxes like capital gains, stamp duty, and council tax impact the housing market, affecting affordability, renting, and homeownership.

18 December 2024

Why did the French Budget fail to pass?

podcast

France’s failed budget highlights fundamental challenges with public debt, slow growth, and the need for significant reforms.

12 December 2024

Inheritance tax and farms

comment

The Autumn 2024 Budget brought some agricultural property into inheritance tax. What are the changes? Who will be affected? Were they a good idea?

25 November 2024

Policy analysis

The increases in Scotland’s top rate of income tax may have reduced revenues – although significant uncertainty remains

comment

Scotland’s income tax rises have likely increased tax avoidance and migration – but the size of the effects is uncertain.

15 November 2024

The 2025–26 English Local Government Finance Settlement explained

comment

English councils’ core spending power set to increase 3.8% in real terms next year, but increases will vary hugely across the country.

18 December 2024

PM2.5 exposure by income deprivation quintile

data item

The most deprived quintile consistently has higher PM2.5 air pollution levels than the least deprived, and this gap has widened since 2017.

6 December 2024

Academic research

Tax evasion and the contribution-benefit link: the case of maternity benefits

working paper

This paper studies tax evasion and the contribution-benefit link in the context of maternity benefits in Hungary.

18 December 2024

Wage effects of means-tested transfers: Incidence implications of using firms as intermediaries

working paper

We show that how countries disburse tax credits matters for economic incidence by exploiting reform to the disbursement of child benefits in Argentina

22 October 2024

Tax preferences and housing affordability: Exploration using a life-cycle model

working paper

We present a dynamic life-cycle model of demand for housing, including owner occupied housing, investment property and liquid assets.

21 October 2024