Adam Smith Institute

Synopsis: Radical changes to housing benefit are required in order to stem the £840 millon of tax payer's money lost annually to fraud and error, and to make the housing market fairer and more responsive to the needs of tenants. Housing benefit should be taken out of the hands of local authorities, and instead paid out by social security offices along with income support. Today's very complicated payment rates, which depend on the tenant's rent level, family circumtances,and the type of property occupied; would be replaced by a uniform benefit for all low paid people. The report's author, housing expert Dr Peter King of DeMontford university in Leicester, says that prehaps £350 million in adminastrative cost and payment errors could be saved by there simplifications alone.

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With Party Political funding hitting the headlines (again), suggestions have been made for the State to contribute to campaign costs. Such calls are misguided. Confidence in the UK's political system can be restored through the provision of information about funds, rather than through costly, bureaucratic measures paid for by the unwilling taxpayer. This paper urged the Neill Committee to reject all forms of State subsidy and to avoid premature answers to an important question.

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Britain in 50 years time still be independent, still a monarchy, and still close to America, but will no longer be influential, and may no longer make waves in science, technology, art or culture. These are among the findings of the new survey conducted by MORI for the Adam Smith Institute. It presents a detailed picture of how the British public see the unfolding century. The report covers issues such as progress, living standards and the welfare state. The young are noticeably different from their elders. They are more optimistic.

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A series of factsheets that examine the need, and methods of implementation, for urban road user charging.

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Despite a supportive government and half a century of above inflation inflation increases, the National Health Service is still under strain. In the past few weeks alone, doctors have critised it for long waiting times, diagnostic mistakes and it's poor record of treating heart disease, cancer and other serious diseases. Everyone accepts that we need to upgrade ond modernise Uk healthcare. But to do that most effectively we must develop a wider involvement in the process, with real partnerships between the NHS, the private sector and the patients themselves.

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The NHS should enter into a range of partnerships and agreements and should commission services from private and voluntary providers.

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Britain's system of town and country planning has evolved in a way which gives immense political power to lobbies. It is incapable of renewing Britain's infrastructure or regenerating decaying habitats, and it cannot cope with projects of national importance. Instead, a National Planning Court should take proposals of national significance out of the local planning regime; the Uniform Business Rate should be abolished; and developers could be allowed to offer a tariff of compensation to local residents.

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University students spend more on drink and on entertainment than on tuition fees, and twice as much on clothes as on books, according to this MORI survey. But they do not tolerate intolerance in their friends, and think that their investment in education will help them far more than any UK or EU government initiative.

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With Public bugets so tight and negative incentives a concern, government is keen to focus it's help on the most needy, and letting others carry more of their own burden. This may be the start of a third way fore welfare, in which individuals themselves are expected to take on more responsibility for insurable risks,presently covered by the state. There is a wide experience to draw on, both from within the uk, and abroad,of how private insurance can take up some of the strain and tailor a better service to today's more diverse population.

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Governments have completely mishandled risk issues such as BSE, GM foods and mobile telephones. People's reactions to risk depends on their own view of it, not on anything they hear from the government. Trying to make people avoid risk - by wearing seatbelts, for example - can easily backfire as people seek new ways to get back to their normal risk levels.

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