The NHS holds a unique place in British life: a source of national pride, and the single biggest public service in England. This year it’s set to cost over £200 billion, around £3,500 per person, more than we spend on education, defence, justice and transport combined. And yet, despite sustained funding increases and around a quarter of a million more staff than in 2019, concerns about performance haven’t gone away.

Labour came into office promising to get a grip on record waiting times, but progress so far looks limited. The waiting list stands at 7.3 million, only slightly down from around 7.6 million when the government took office a year and a half ago. With winter pressures, flu surges, and resident doctors taking strike action, it raises a big question: what’s actually going on inside the system, and is improvement realistically on the horizon?

In this episode, Helen is joined by IFS colleagues Olly Harvey-Rich and Max Warner to unpack the data and the trade-offs. We look at winter pressures and capacity, what the latest performance metrics tell us, and the real constraints facing the NHS - money, productivity and system design. Finally, we look ahead to the rest of the parliament: should we be hopeful about meaningful change, or are the obstacles bigger than the plans?

Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts-explainers-and-calculators/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moving into 2026, the government faces a critical period of delivery. After 18 months in power and several major fiscal events behind them, the focus is shifting from setting policy to seeing it through. However, with unemployment reaching 5.1% and a series of high-stakes reviews underway, the road ahead remains complex.

In this episode, we are joined by Christine Farquharson and Tom Waters to examine the economic landscape for the year ahead. We look at the rising pressures on the public purse, from health-related benefits to the "national conversation" on SEND, and ask what the upcoming fiscal events might reveal about the government’s long-term strategy. We also look at what could shift the outlook, for better or worse, from public sector productivity to the economic impact of new technologies like AI and GLP-1 drugs.

Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts-explainers-and-calculators/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As ever the big-picture choices in the Budget dominated media coverage - but some of the most interesting changes were buried in the detail. From electric vehicles to tourist tax, how much do these quieter tax shifts really matter?

In this episode, we dig into the lesser-noticed policies: why the government is offering upfront EV grants while planning a per-mile tax, how tweaks to salary sacrifice and cash ISAs could shape saving behaviour, and what the changes to EIS and EMI mean for investment and entrepreneurship.

Joining Helen are Stuart Adam and Ben Zaranko from the IFS to break down what’s changed, why it matters, and what the “devil in the detail” tells us about the government’s tax strategy.

Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts-explainers-and-calculators/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.