Fraud is now the most common crime in England and Wales, costing the UK economy £137bn each year. In this blog, Richard Hyde, Scott Corfe and Bill Anderson-Samways examine the inadequacy of police resource dedicated to tackling the problem, and call on the Government to take a comprehensive “systems approach” to tackling fraud, enacting reforms that can endure over decades.

Across the summer the Social Market Foundation will be publishing policy briefings from our Director, Emran Mian. We welcome feedback, so if you'd like to get in touch about anything discussed in the briefing, please contact director@smf.co.uk.

The UK video games industry directly contributes £1.3bn to the UK economy (as measured by gross value added, “GVA”). Years of industry growth – often unrecognised in SW1 - has been catalysed by life in lockdown. But success has brought scrutiny and with it, questions of how this growing sector should be regulated.

In this post, we reflect on our recent Ask the Expert event on the future of small businesses after the pandemic, held in partnership with UK Research and Innovation.

Rising energy prices mean that many people will be cutting back on their gas consumption this winter. In this blog, Jake Shepherd estimates the financial savings households and the Government could make by reducing demand, using energy saving efforts in Germany as a benchmark.

The Coronavirus crisis is entrenching existing inequalities and stands to create new ones without firm action from policymakers.

We urgently need to reckon with the impact that eating meat has on the climate, human health, biothreats, animal welfare and much more. But delivering a proportionate response depends on knowing how much meat we are eating. And that, as this blog sets out, isn’t entirely clear.

Increasing police numbers can reduce crime rates, and yet - as Richard Hyde points out - it is an aspect of policing that isn’t as prominent as it should be. As crime will likely become more complex, Hyde calls on police and policymakers to invest in increasing police numbers, so that we can not only to stay on top of the current high levels of crime, but also reduce them substantially.

Deprivation is strongly correlated with drug misuse and its consequences. In this blog, SMF Senior Researcher Jake Shepherd, and Jay Jackson, Head of Policy & Public Affairs at drugs policy think tank Volteface, discuss drugs and deprivation in the UK, and how better, bolder drugs policies can help to boost regional equality.