Commentary & Podcasts

The SMF hosted a speech and discussion with Alison McGovern MP, Shadow Minister for Employment on the 27 April 2023. This is the speech in full, with Alison sharing her vision for the years ahead and how to ensure opportunities are spread evenly across the country.

Social mobility is rarely – if ever – measured by looking at the social and cultural divides between the rich and poor. However, as John Asthana Gibson argues, if the government is serious about their social mobility agenda, it should focus on building our children’s social and cultural capital.

Protests against this year's Grand National have drawn sharp attention to the horse racing industry. That the government subsidises the industry by taxing betting profits raises questions about why such a levy isn't in place to use to treat problem gambling.

The Government’s Heat Pump Investment Roadmap is a late addition to the mass of ‘Green Day’ announcements. Whilst the commitment to heat pumps is clear and welcome, the reliance on private investment may be overly optimistic, argues Niamh O Regan.

In this essay, SMF Director James Kirkup reflects on the merits and failures of markets, whilst looking forward towards work we’re doing with Citizens Advice, exploring what we can do when markets don’t deliver the social benefits we expect of them.

Many of those who support fuel duty cuts say they are justified because they give financial help to people who can barely make ends meet. In fact, as Gideon Salutin shows, fuel duty is mostly paid by the better off, meaning cutting it is little more than a tax cut for the rich, often funded by cutting services that are used by the poor.