Spending Review 2020: Think tank response round-up

How have think-tanks and campaign groups responded to the Chancellor’s fiscal and economic news?

Kieran Neild-Ali: We need tougher auditing of council spending. But a new quango is not the answer.

We must continue to devolve power to council taxpayers themselves – building on the legacy of the abolition of the Audit Commission.

Matthew Elliott: Please apply to invest in Britain’s future and win £10,000

We would like to hear from people under the age of 35 with an exciting idea or contribution to policy debate.

Robert Halfon: Delivering social justice means feeding children properly. We’re not doing so – and we must.

The Government’s own calculations of welfare payments do not cost in the provision of a healthy diet.

Sunak’s measures: What do they look like, where’s the money coming from – and how do they compare to other countries’?

While the Chancellor’s recovery measures look drastic, they are “middle of the pack” when compared to others in the world.

Stamp duty cut welcome, but concerns about “tomorrow’s taxpayers”. Centre-right think tanks react to Sunak statement.

Several wonder how these big spending pledges are sustainable.

James Roberts: Big state spender Roosevelt shouldn’t be Gove’s new role model

In that sense, his speech could easily have been given by a much more fitting figure for the Ditchley Foundation: Tony Blair.

Gove’s push for intellectual and regional diversity in public appointments

His recent announcement to the Commons suggests the Government may be making another effort to grasp a nettle which his predecessors have neglected.

“Seriously concerning.” “A Gordon Brown-style budget”. Centre-right think tanks resist the Budget’s main platform.

But some free marketeers are concerned about the huge borrowing rise and the reliance on “bureaucrats picking winners.”

WATCH: “People need to be really careful what they wish for.” Robbie Gibb on abolishing the licence fee.

May’s former Director of Communications was interviewed by Mark Wallace at a Taxpayers’ Alliance event.

Sam Packer: The Government is still packing quangos with left-wing activists

Appointments go to those who conform with socialist “groupthink”. Genuine diversity is needed.

Duncan Simpson: Three tasks for Johnson. Cull quangos. End taxpayer-funded lobbying. And reform appointments.

Cleaning up the state won’t be a quick and easy task. But if Boris Johnson doesn’t grasp the nettle, it will certainly come back to sting.

James Frayne: Ten errors that Conservatives must avoid making about the new working class voters who backed them last month

Listening to conversations in Westminster in recent days, I fear a number of misconceptions will drive bad decision-making.

HS2’s financial case gets weaker and weaker – but has its political justification held up any better?

The project has its vocal supporters, but there are many areas in the North of England which it will not help at all.

Simon Cooke: We need more politicians. It is the only way to tame the unaccountable bureaucrats.

Instead of seeing local councillors as a potential saving, maybe we should see them as an asset.