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Reform Scotland has released their first report Powers for growth.

For further details please contact Geoff Mawdsley, Director, or Alison Payne, Research Director, on 0131 524 9500 or email info@reformscotland.com

A new report today argues that the public sector expansion begun in April 1999 has failed to achieve its stated aims, has restricted economic growth and has left the UK ill-placed to face the challenges of the next decade.  The report, by the independent think tank Reform, shows that while the Government has pointed to strong growth during this period, 29 per cent of GDP growth has been generated by a bigger public sector.  It argues that in his Budget the Chancellor should reject the inputs-led approach in favour of a sustainable “fiscal footprint” for the UK.

For the full report:

Bosanquet. N. et al (2008). A lost decade - counting the opportunity cost of public spending 1999-2008, Reform (pdf, 262kb)

For the news release:

A lost decade - counting the opportunity cost of public spending 1999-2008, Reform, news release (pdf, 79kb)

Media coverage:

Pit pony carrying top weight is set up for a crashing fall, Jeff Randall, The Daily Telegraph, 12 March 2008

What to tell us on budget day: where our money is going and how it can be stopped, Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 10 March 2008

Gordon Brown's economic omission, The Daily Telegraph, Janet Daley, 10 March 2008

Darling needs £240 tax rise in budget shortfall, James Kirkup, Toby Helm and Edmund Conway, The Daily Telegraph, 10 March 2008

Higher spending does not equal better services, Andrew Haldenby and Lucy Parsons, ConservativeHome, 10 March 2008

Budget 2008: Arresting the fiscal flood, Elizabeth Truss & Lucy Parsons, The Spectator, 10 March 2008

PM faces cash backlash, The Sun, David Wooding, 10 March 2008

Darling rules out windfall tax on the energy giants' mega-profits, Daily Mail, Benedict Brogan, 10 March 2008

Taxed and spent, The Guardian - Comment is free, Andrew Haldenby, 20 March 2008

• "The global economy is not in the government's hands. But its attitude to value for money is. A pre-budget report from Reform - A lost decade: Counting the opportunity cost of public spending 1999-2008 - offered a way forward for the government to regain ground. Last week the prime minister committed the government to a new level of public service reform. That now looks like good politics as well as good policy. "

Spending on public services is no laughing matter, Times Online, 18 March 2008

• "According to A Lost Decade (March 10) , a report by the think-tank Reform, the Government has failed to deliver on its promises to transform public services and increase UK productivity. 'Spending on public services has been a flash flood rather than the planned irrigation that was needed,' it says."

Scotland cannot prosper while Westminster holds the purse, Geoff Mawdsley, The Scotsman, 17 March 2008

• Geoff Mawdsley, Director of Reform Scotland, writes: "Today, Reform Scotland – a new, independent think tank – publishes its first report, Powers for Growth, in the hope this will stand as a signpost to a new road of economic stability and strength."