The Demos team and its work features regularly in the press on the key issues of the day. Read our statements and articles by our team here.
2023 has seen frequent briefings to the media that inheritance tax is to be cut or abolished altogether. In the end, abolishing inheritance tax was not a feature of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. But with The Telegraph running a major...
If you ask a politician about reforming inheritance tax, they generally wince, and may then leave abruptly. They know the conventional wisdom says that, unless the policy is to scrap inheritance tax, don’t touch it. “Fair enough”, you might say,...
Earlier this year, Demos launched a new project on the UK’s ‘New Age of Inheritance’. We’ve found that the real value of inheritances transferred annually in the UK has doubled roughly every 20 years since 1979 to over £100bn a...
Is Britain in decline? 2023 is looking bleak for the UK economy. According to the recent IMF forecast, it will be the only major economy in recession this year. They pointed the finger at relatively short-term problems: inflation, energy prices and...
Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor have a £40bn funding gap to fill and the Chancellor has said nothing is off the table. But how would the public do the job? What are the public’s priorities? Two years ago, Demos ran...
Tax simplification: unlikely to get you out of bed in the morning. If it does, you’re probably concerned about the business burdens of a lengthy tax code. I think a much broader group should care about tax simplification, particularly those...
By Charles Seaford, Senior Fellow The Prime Minister recently announced a new target for UK greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2030 – 68% of 1990 levels, or 42% of current levels. What role could tax, and especially a carbon tax,...
On any measure it has been a big political year, from David Cameron’s surprise majority to Jeremy Corbyn’s remarkable insurgency. But what were the big ideas? Pre-distribution. Ed Miliband was mocked for using the term in 2012 but it always...
While public debate is focused on cuts to tax credits, and whether their staged introduction and move to National Living Wage will soften the blow for the working poor, a more interesting and nuanced reform is underway. In August, Ian...
