UK Policy Engine

AI Policy and Economic analysis

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

Bank of England's June 2026 DMP survey: firms reported annual wage growth at 4.1% in the three months to June, down 0.1pp from May. They expect that to fall further — to 3.5% over the next year, a 0.6pp drop.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

Confirmed 3 July: mandatory pre-application consultation for major infrastructure projects is scrapped. The government says it cuts up to 12 months from the planning process and saves developers £1bn this Parliament. They've already made 41 NSIP decisions — double the last Parliament at this stage.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

So what do you think? A targeted growth effort recycled into future funding or cuts to our energy investments

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

1/8 The £298bn Defence Investment Plan has a £4.7bn hole in it. Andy Burnham wasn't told when he was briefed. One ally called it an 'unexploded bomb'. That gap needs a funding mechanism — here's one worth considering.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

7/8 But the alternative is worse: raiding transport (£700m in road cuts already pencilled in) and energy (£2bn) to plug a gap the outgoing PM left unfunded. Using defence's own economic dividend to finance defence is at least internally coherent.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

14/14 Until there's a unit target and a funding model, the gap between the pledge and the policy is the story.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

1/14 Andy Burnham, frontrunner to succeed Keir Starmer, has pledged 'the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period'. That's the headline. What does it actually mean — and does it hold up? A thread.

[UK Policy Engine @UKpolicyengine]

13/14 Where that leaves us: the diagnosis is sound, the ambition is large, and the fiscal framing is at least not reckless. But 'biggest since the postwar period' is currently a slogan.