Social Market Foundation

Have had such an interesting first week in the new job as Research Director @smfthinktank.bsky.social 😊

(New job, same building - just moved a few floors!)

Over the summer, we'll be sending out bitesize chunks of some of our research highlights - making sure you have holiday essential reading🕶️🌴

Sign up to our mailing list:
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📦 To really boost UK exporters, the Gov’t must:

✅ Cut key trade barriers
📣 Raise awareness of FTA benefits
🇪🇺 Simplify EU trade

📖 Read David’s blog: buff.ly/PT5cA2X

📉 UK exporters have faced a decade of shocks.

Can the Gov’t’s new Trade Strategy turn things around?

@britishchambers @brirechamber.bsky.social Head of Research David Bharier takes a closer look 🔍

We're delighted to have backing from @alexballingermp.bsky.social for our fair and balanced proposals to reform gambling taxes🤝

✍️Read Alex's foreword, and the full report The Duty to Differentiate:
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📘 Read the SMF’s full report — The Duty to Differentiate — here:
🔗 buff.ly/YvKK3ID

💡 Our suite of targeted tax increases would raise £2bn per year — boosting the Exchequer 💰 and helping reduce social harm caused by online gambling 🧠⚖️

📢 Gov’t is consulting on creating a single remote gambling levy

However, a blanket levy unfairly treats less harmful activities (single-event horse racing) the same as more harmful activities (online slots)

🏥💷 These harms impose a heavy toll on public services – from healthcare and welfare to criminal justice – with estimated fiscal costs potentially reaching billions of pounds per year.

🎰 Remote gambling is a serious challenge.

Did you know online gamblers are 6x more likely to be problem gamblers — and nearly 1 in 4 meet the criteria for gambling addiction? ⚠️📱

🎰 Remote gaming, which includes high-risk products like online slots, is currently undertaxed despite being the most harmful segment of the gambling industry.

@jranoyes.bsky.social makes the case for gambling tax reform 💸

“Alliance universities teach high-level skills in sectors like healthcare and construction...But they are being hamstrung by bureaucratic overload, financial disincentives and a shifting policy and funding landscape."

UA CEO Vanessa Wilson on @smfthinktank.bsky.social's 'Skills sidelined' report 👇

📈 We recommend an uplift of 80,000 new officers — focusing on specialists to tackle emerging threats. That would bring the UK closer to the European average for police per capita.
🧵 Read Richard Hyde’s full report: buff.ly/6ftQ292

🚓 Reform wants to spend the summer talking about crime.

But they’re not being ambitious enough on policing — or tackling the biggest threats blighting the UK, like fraud and serious organised crime (SOC).

A national social tariff will ensure everyone can access water when they need it. 💦

We’ve also called for a Rising Block Tariff 📈 to help the most vulnerable whilst ensuring vital investment in our water system. ❤️

📘 Read our latest report: buff.ly/tArUyab

💧 We welcome the recommendations in the Cunliffe Review to help build a fairer water system.
We're especially pleased to see a national social tariff scheme proposed — something the SMF has long called for. 🙌
📖 Read our op-ed:
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Vanessa Wilson, UA CEO and a message from her reading: "The SMF's timely new report stresses how universities are vital to delivering the high-level skills the economy needs, and how they are being held back."

This week, the @smfthinktank.bsky.social launched its 'Skills sidelined' report - detailing how universities should be central to skills and apprenticeship policy going forward.

Read more about the report here: buff.ly/niANdZJ

Trust was meant to be this government's big battle, but how has the first year of trust-building gone? I revisited something I wrote a year ago and thought about how Labour could move the dial.

Integral to Labour's chances is persuading a sceptical public they can be trusted to deliver on their promises.🤝

✍️In the SMF's latest blog, @steve.vr.bsky.social writes about what Labour needs to do to build trust with the electorate

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NEW: The SMF's latest report looks at universities’ high-level skills provision – and how they are being held back from delivering economic growth and opportunity.

Their ‘Skills sidelined’ report makes recommendations on widening access, fixing funding and reducing bureaucracy.

Read more 👇

📘 Read @danihpayne’s full report — Skills sidelined — here:
👉 buff.ly/hgAvFXI
Kindly sponsored by @unialliance.bsky.social

📣 To turn big rhetoric into real results, bold HE skills reform is needed.

We recommend:
🔹 More employer accountability
🔹 Bigger role for HE providers in local skills plans
🔹 Better student data & guidance
🔹 Smarter use of the Apprenticeship Levy

🎓 Higher-level skills provision has been underused.
Expanding it would:
✅ Tackle key sector shortages
✅ Support economic growth
✅ Offer a debt-free HE route for those from disadvantaged backgrounds

🗣️ Labour has talked big on economic growth — but it's held back by major skills shortages in key areas like:
🏗️ Construction
🩺 Health & social care
🚆 Transport

🚨 The Government has ambitious missions – but how does it actually achieve them?

In her latest report, @danihpayne.bsky.social explores how boosting skills can unlock growth and opportunity. ⬇️

A sense of momentum is building around UK AI policy. 🤖

To capitalise on that momentum, the Gov'ts compute strategy must make deliberate choices about who and what it is for - and how it connects with energy, talent and AI leadership.⚡

Read @sam-rob.bsky.social's latest blog:

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Scrapping cash ISAs is not the way to get Brits investing Mandates and abolishing alternatives won't help British people benefit from investment opportunities in the private sector

An interesting piece by Mark Garnier MP in City AM on why Brits aren't investing.💷

Only 47% of adults score well on financial literacy, and just 1 in 4 got any financial education at school.🎓

📖 Our work: www.smf.co.uk/publications...
✍️ Mark’s article: www.cityam.com/scrapping-ca...

We welcome the news that the Gov't will announce £4.5 million of funding for projects to develop satellite-based 5G and 6G systems.🛰️

Cash boosts like these are critical to addressing the UK's 5G 'investment gap'.💷

Read our report setting out a 'new deal for 5G' 👇

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As @gideonsalutin.bsky.social highlights, an alternative scheme could decrease carbon emissions and poverty at the same time.

Read his full analysis👇

www.smf.co.uk/electric-car...

The issue with the scheme is that many who use it would've bought an EV regardless.

A social leasing system, like the one used in France, could have doubled the amount of new EVs - and made sure support went to those who need it most. 🤝