The nightmarish state of the public finances makes NHS reform even more urgent While Westminster was awaiting the first lines of Theresa May’s Brexit speech yesterday morning, the government’s fiscal watchdog issued a devastating judgement on the long-term health of the country’s finances. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the accelerating cost of the NHS will double the national debt relative to GDP by the middle [...]
Higher taxes and more debt are the only alternatives to real state pension reform Engineering an exit from the European Union will be the most significant administrative challenge faced by Whitehall since the Second World War. But ministers must resist the temptation to put the public service reform agenda on the backburner. The economic uncertainty created by June’s referendum means that driving efficiency is now more important than ever. [...]