The Policy Researcher’s Top 5 Wish list for the Spending Review

Be transparent

First on our wishlist is transparency. The ex CEO of NHS England said in his NHS Providers Annual Lecturethat there is no transparency on how the spending review decisions are reached. David Nicholson said that there should be open consultation and a transparent process. Policy Connect welcomes this as it will enable us and our members to understand and act upon the Comprehensive Spending Review more clearly.

Support renewables and carbon cutting technologies to meet the 2020 carbon targets

The Department for Energy and Climate Change has recently come under scrutiny after Amber Rudd’s communication to other parliamentarians was leakedrevealing that the UK is expected to fail to meet its carbon reduction targets. Nevertheless, the government is still looking to cut funding for renewable technologies. Carbon Connect’s latest inquiry Pathways for Heat: Low Carbon Heat for Buildings reported that the Government needs to urgently produce and implement a long term strategy for decarbonising heat for buildings in the UK. So the question is – will carbon reduction targets be integrated into the spending review?

Support the industrial and manufacturing sector

With manufacturing on the rise here in the UK and questions around exporting and EU trade deals up in the air, the Manufacturing Commission recently published the result of a year-long inquiry into industrial sustainability Industrial Evolution: Making British Manufacturing Sustainable in which it outlines vital measures that government and industry should take to ensure that British manufacturing is here to stay. It found that there are risks in not taking advantage of the key economic opportunities or evolving our industries. Action needs to be taken now to secure a clean, innovative future – and Britain can be the leaders in this global shift.

Follow the evidence

Let’s base future policies and budget on real evidence. The HE green paper titled Fulfilling our potential: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice , presented to Parliament by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, has put forward a number of key policy recommendations which propose significant Higher Education regulatory changes. These include the merging of regulatory bodies, introducing a requirement for providers to have contingency arrangements in place to protect students, co-regulation and introducing a single, transparent regulatory framework across bodies, which draws on recommendations from the Higher Education Commission report Regulating Higher Educationpublished in 2013. Policy Connect is pleased to see the government producing policy based on strong evidence, and encourages it to continue to develop its policy in this manner.

Futureproof policies

The final wish on our list is for futureproofed policies that go beyond the five year political term and really aim to support our society and economy long term.

Here at Policy Connect we frequently hear about resolutely futureproofing policy. We have seen NHS finance chiefs questioning if the £8bn boost promised to the health service is enough, a topic frequently covered in All-Party Parliamentary Health seminars this year. Similarly, in the sustainability sector, George Osborne is expected to announce cuts to DECC’s budget over the next 4 years despite the UK not meeting its carbon-cutting targets and Carbon Connect calling for further investment in a long-term heat strategy. What’s more, in the world of energy safety policy, the Energy Safety Policy group recently issued warnings from the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, that the government is not futureproofing rented housing regulatory safeguards. New regulations that came into force on 1st October 2015 in England have already been overtaken by those in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and leave private renters in England open to extra risk in their homes as homes containing solid-fuel appliances constitute only 8.2% of the entire private rental sector, which is also the fastest growing housing sector in England.