Evidence briefings

The single biggest impact on economic growth is the widening gap between the lower middle class and poor households compared to the rest of society. Research from the LLAKES Centre indicates that England’s post-16 education and training system is failing to reduce skills inequality in literacy and numeracy.

The UK’s infrastructure is amongst the most interconnected in the world and has a pressing need to adopt a broad and integrated approach to infrastructure planning. The iBUILD report Are you being served? has set out five priority action areas and recommendations to improve infrastructure business models.

Current performance indicators do not appear to either tell the whole story of infrastructure performance, or adequately support UK infrastructure development. A new report concludes that a new assessment approach is required, using a broader and more sophisticated set of indicators.

The ongoing Unity out of Diversity research project is exploring how immigrant integration is perceived and understood in different sectors of society. A comparison of integration outcomes shows that ethnic majority and minority groups in the UK share a wide range of common values, aspirations, attitudes and sense of responsibilities.

Research has examined whether public information campaigns in 2013 focusing on immigration were effective in achieving their objective. Publicity campaigns with 'tough' messages on immigration increased anxiety and anger for a significant minority of people

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has analysed the issues and options facing the Government in reducing spending on social security.

Extending the use of conditional welfare has been central to successive UK governments, but it is unclear how much conditionality helps to change and sustain behaviour. Research evidence indicates that benefit sanctions increase the amount of people coming off benefits - but there are negative longer-term outcomes.

Researchers from the Enterprise Research Centre have mapped the level of innovative activity in local areas across the country. Businesses with the highest levels of innovation are located in an arc stretching from Cambridge and Peterborough, through the South East Midlands to Oxfordshire and west along the M4 corridor.

Researchers have investigated how business strategies, regional linkages and policies influence the growth of green goods manufacturing SMEs in the UK, China and the US. UK firms are still struggling to access early-stage finance for innovation and scale-up phases.

Since the introduction of the Children Act 1989 there has been increased pressure on agencies working with children to refer them to social care, but little recognition of the negative impact on families.