The Adam Smith Institute’s latest policy briefing, written by Maxwell Marlow and Sofia Risino, suggests various childcare reforms aimed at cutting costs, boosting quality and increasing parental choice.
The Post Office is not a natural monopoly whose market is difficult to contest. There is no interdependence between the three services: letters, parcels and counters thus they should be separated and privatized within a framework of 3-5 years.
Read it here.
Policy experts from both left and right agree that the welfare state cannot survive without a radical set of reforms. The new Fortune Account would provide for retirement savings and lifetime insurance against unemployment and other risks. Positive incentives would reduce fraud, while the extra investment could produce an additional 3% rise in economic growth as experienced in Chile.
Read it here.
New Zealand has been rated the world's most free economy by The Economist due to reforms initiated by the Labour government. The old Crown departments have been split into their policy, regulatory, service-delivery and commercial functions. The government has also become the first to adopt the same kind of rigorous accounting standards that are demanded of commercial firms - every new policy must be subjected to long range and analysis of its costs and impact. Having seen New Zealand as the world's laboratory for public sector reform, there is much we could learn from the Kiwi effect.
Read it here.
The authors of 'A Fund for Life' argue that the UK state pension should be remodelled on Chile's privatized system which replaced its state pension with compulsory personal savings accounts which have become actuarially sound and secure, and offer flexible retirement ages, higher rates of return and stimulate economic growth.
Read it here.
The public forest estate no longer serves a public purpose. It occupies 10% of the area of Great Britain and over 15% of the rural area of mainland Scotland. All of this is outside local control. Over the last eighty years the national forest policy has been a complete failure and the Forestry Commission is to blame. There has been no return on investment, no commercial value and worst has failed to deliver on any of its objectives. The authors claim that the public forest estate should be freed from government constraints and protection. The woodlands should be returned gratis to the residents of the communities of which they could then become part.
Miles Saltiel is an investment banker with experience of the privatizations of Eastern Europe. Allan Stewart MP is a former Minister of State at the Scottish Office.
Read the full paper here.
This symposium was constructed to discuss the debate surrounding feeder-reliever airports, and potential parameters for a solution.
Within Captive Capital, Bracewell-Milnes discusses the negative consequences of excessive capital gains tax in the UK, and puts forward his argument for a better alternative to the current tax system.
In 'Letter to Lisbon', Keith Boyfield argues the case of lower excise duties on alcohol and tobacco.
Read it here.
Ordinary people pay more IHT than the rich. The UK rate is far above the EU average, hitting much smaller estates. The tax is a powerful disincentive on saving, kills family businesses, is costly to collect, and destroys far more than it yields. If it did not exist, no rational person would propose it.
Read the full paper here
In 'The Fortune Account', Dr Eamonn Butler and Dr Madsen Pirie argue that individuals should be able to opt out of the state welfare system into an individual, funded and privately managed 'Fortune Account' which will provide lifetime insurance and basic pension benefits. This will allow people to accumulate savings when young, fit and in work, in order to fund their needs in retirement or when unemployed, sick, or disabled.
Read the whole paper here.
