Commentary & Podcasts

SMF researcher Ben Richards examines whether spending commitments that were targeted at specific local areas by the Chancellor in his last budget before the election boosted votes.

SMF Director Emran Mian examines the prospects for post-election deal-making. He finds that despite the fervent attempts at differentiation by the parties during the campaign, there's a lot of policy common ground.

Successive governments have failed to address the fundamental problem of housing supply. Will a Conservative or Labour government post-2015 do any better? SMF Chief Economist Nida Broughton, and Research Director Nigel Keohane, offer analysis of the party election manifestos.

Following the Conservative 2015 manifesto launch, SMF Researcher Ben Richards looks at the party's discredited commitment to reducing net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’ and asks: what would a good migration target look like?

Labour is presenting itself as the new party of fiscal responsibility, with a “Budget Responsibility Lock” to prove it. SMF Chief Economist Nida Broughton analyses the Labour 2015 manifesto to see if this true for their election commitments.

SMF Research Ben Richards looks at the complex relationship between Universal Credit and the experience of low incomes tenants in the Private Rented Sector