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Manifesto 2010
As we approach what is likely to be the most important general election for a generation we are planning a programme of events to feed into the parties' manifestos.
Download our 'Events Themes - Manifesto 2010' document for details of the topics we are planning on covering from Autumn 2009 and in the run up to the election.
To discuss any of the issues in the document and how you can be involved in this influential programme of events please contact David Furness on 020 7227 4410 or dfurness@smf.co.uk or Will Hoyles on 020 7227 4412 or whoyles@smf.co.uk.
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has today called for an independent body separate from the Treasury to undertake official fiscal projections on which government expenditure decisions are based. In the report "Forecasting Independence: taking the politics out of fiscal projections" the think tank argues that separation of fiscal policymaking and projection-making will boost the perception of credibility and independence for fiscal projections, and eliminate any scope for governments to run unsustainable fiscal policy by erring on the side of over-optimistic forecasts. - Read more...
In response to the unemployment figures announced today, the Social Market Foundation is warning that the primary focus on the rise in youth unemployment is misguided and excessive. This leads to policy responses that focus on the young to the exclusion of other unemployed people. - Read more...
During the 2009 party conference the SMF filmed our keynote events. Below is a compilation of highlights from all three events
Click the link to view extended highlights of the individual events. - Read more...Podcasts of some of the Social Market Foundation's conference fringe events are now available to download here -
Arrangements for fiscal policymaking ultimately come down to a set of choices around: who should take fiscal decisions and how? Who should carry out the projections of revenue and spending on which those decisions are based? In the UK, fiscal policymaking has traditionally been highly centralised and discretionary, with all fiscal projections and decisions emanating from HM Treasury. The self-imposed fiscal rules of the 1997 Labour government represented an important experiment in the evolution of fiscal policy institutions. The rules sought to articulate formal standards by which fiscal policymaking could be judged thereby increasing political accountability, even if the rules themselves amounted to nothing more than statements of intent. However, the fiscal crisis that confronted the UK in 2009 showed that even if the government's fiscal framework was an improvement on what went before, it clearly wasn't good enough. Read more...