How to measure – and vanquish – poverty? A new answer to an old problem.

Philippa Stroud’s new Social Metrics Commission hopes to bring light to murky statistical waters. But can numbers ever truly neutralise politics?

Alex Morton: A win for those spending Ministers would be a defeat for the taxpayer – not just Hammond and Truss

The Comprehensive Spending Review has to be seen as a way to reset the narrative. Government need to focus on reform as a positive – not expenditure.

We can’t just tax our way to a better NHS

Yes, some rises are inevitable. But they must be balanced by spending reductions elsewhere if economic policy is to be practicable and coherent.

Ayesha Azad and Mark Pengelly: In Woking, we are determined that council tenants must have the chance of home ownership

Our innovative Earn Your Deposit Scheme would give the young a real chance to get on the housing ladder.

Andy Cook: Give the poor a pay rise? Boost their productivity.

The Government must do much more to promote universities, apprenticeships and FE colleagues equally to ensure that young people get the skills they need.

Robert Halfon: Being a Workers Party means being a party for lower taxes too

We should put the proceeds in a special Redistribution Fund to spend either on public services, or on poorer communities, or cutting taxes for the lower paid.

Abbott’s Arithmetic 3) Labour’s top-rate tax plan is too narrowly aimed at agile targets

The Opposition’s revenue projections are at the mercy of a small, highly responsive group of taxpayers.

Abbott’s Arithmetic 1) Labour’s tax avoidance figures are built on fiction

The Opposition plan to raise £6.5 billion, a figure reached by splitting the difference between numbers the IFS says were ‘made up’.

Think tanks’ verdict on the manifesto: a good start on generational justice, but weak on the public finances

The Centre for Policy Studies, Institute of Economic Affairs, Bright Blue, and others give their verdict on the Conservatives’ programme for government.

Kevin Hollinrake: Why the National Minimum Wage should be raised to the level of the National Living Wage

A new study shows that paying a living wage is good for employees, and that it’s proving to make good business sense too.

Ben Rochelle: How can Greening get out of the trap she’s in over the National Funding Formula for schools?

During a meeting with other disgruntled Conservative MPs, George Osborne allegedly told the Education Secretary: “Now you see why I didn’t do this.”

Ryan Shorthouse: Balancing the budget. Make private schools pay VAT. End ring-fencing. Charge for missed GP appointments.

The second piece in our pre-Budget series on how to eliminate the structural deficit.

The real challenge isn’t sorting business rates. It’s ending that stubborn structural deficit.

The harsh truth is that, nearly seven years into Conservative-led Government, we are still living beyond our means.

Peter Ainsworth: If Brexit is to succeed we need to produce more home-grown, high-skilled workers

Our university system is not producing enough at present, and the Government’s proposed reforms threaten to produce even fewer.

James Mackay: To help poorer people, the Chancellor should raise the marriage allowance, not the personal allowance

A Government which wants to ‘make Britain a country that works for everyone’ cannot allocate £4 billion of £6 billion to those in the top half of the income distribution.