Reports

Funding and spending growth are set to slow. Without a top-up, health spending will be flat in 2025–26 and tricky trade-offs elsewhere loom too.

How have public sector pay and employment changed in Scotland in recent years and what are the implications of those changes?

Scotland’s schools are relatively well funded. Falling pupil rolls and workforce planning represent both challenges and opportunities going forwards. 

What are the consequences of the proliferation of deferred small pension pots and what are the merits of different potential policy responses?

Council tax in Scotland – as in England – is out of date, regressive and distortionary. How should it be reformed, and what would the effects be?

We present the first consistent estimates of what has happened to Ministry of Justice funding since the early 2000s and put these changes in context.

Scotland’s Tax Strategy is welcome but says little concrete about tax policy. And some actual tax policy is divorced from any sensible strategy. 

What are the drivers of ethnic gaps in private pension participation rates and what consequences will these gaps have for future retirement incomes?

We study young adults who live with parents, considering how the share living with parents varies across groups, and how this can relate to saving.

This annual report contains our latest estimates of spending per pupil and resource challenges across different stages of education in England.

This IFS Pensions Review report sets out issues with the current means-tested benefit system for those approaching the state pension age and beyond. 

Spending on special educational needs (SEND) is becoming unsustainable due to the rise in high needs. Reform to SEND funding and provision is needed.

A new, up-to-date system for allocating funding between councils is vital, and reforms must align with the broader vision for local government.

We set out how air pollution (PM2.5) has changed across England and explore inequalities by ethnicity, income deprivation, region and age.

This edition of the Survey of Ghana’s Tax System provides a comprehensive overview of the tax system as of the start of 2024.

This report sets out the financial state of colleges in England since 2010 and analyses the key future challenges they face.

This report studies the impact of Sure Start, which supported families of under-5s, on children’s behaviour, youth offending and social care contacts.

We set out the major challenges facing the adult social care system in England and explore potential future developments for the sector.

Growth has been better than expected this year, but the UK’s recovery is not yet secure. Structural changes will require reform, not just investment.

We examine the challenges facing public services and the Chancellor’s public spending options at the forthcoming Budget and Spending Reviews.