Gavin Kelly
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gavin-kelly.bsky.social
Gavin Kelly
@gavin-kelly.bsky.social
Chief Executive, Nuffield Foundation

Previous lives:
Chief Executive & Exec. Chair, Resolution Foundation
Founding Chair, Living Wage Commission
Deputy Chief of Staff, 10 Downing Street
Council of Economic Advisors, HMT
A small, welcome step on the fiscal devo journey.

www.gov.uk/government/n...
Levy on overnight trips will help mayors invest in local growth
England’s mayors will be able to invest in transport, infrastructure, and the visitor economy through a new levy on overnight stays.
www.gov.uk
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
Child poverty remains a persistent challenge in the UK. At Wednesday's Budget, attention will be on the Chancellor & whether she will scrap the two-child benefit limit. The Foundation's @amiddletonbeer.bsky.social assesses the evidence for this necessary, but not sufficient, policy.
bit.ly/3XhNsHr
Child Poverty in the UK: Removing the two-child limit is important, but insufficient - Nuffield Foundation
The decisions to be announced at the despatch box on Wednesday will have profound...
bit.ly
November 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
Want to help some of the most vulnerable young people in society get on in life?

Then extend the age at which young adults leave foster care, says this fascinating new US study by @khmusen.bsky.social

The effects - particularly on employment rates - are significant.

katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....
katemusen.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Want to help some of the most vulnerable young people in society get on in life?

Then extend the age at which young adults leave foster care, says this fascinating new US study by @khmusen.bsky.social

The effects - particularly on employment rates - are significant.

katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....
katemusen.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
The ethics council to the vast Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (largest in the world) has been suspended by the Norwegian government.

Important & troubling piece by @martinsandbu.ft.com

www.ft.com/content/f6b3...
How Norway jeopardised its integrity overnight
Oslo abruptly changed the ethics rules for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund
www.ft.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
Here's Denis Healey when the basic (+ higher) rate of income tax was last raised 50 years ago (BR went up by 2p to 35%). Note the desire to avoid a *100%* marginal rate at the very top.
November 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Here's Denis Healey when the basic (+ higher) rate of income tax was last raised 50 years ago (BR went up by 2p to 35%). Note the desire to avoid a *100%* marginal rate at the very top.
November 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
📣Closing this week: We're hiring an Associate Director to lead our Emerging Technology & Industry Practice research domain.

It's an exciting time to join Ada as we begin our new strategy period.

Deadline: 23:59 GMT, 16 November 2025.
www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/job/associat...
Ada Lovelace Institute Associate Director, Emerging Technology & Industry Practice
www.adalovelaceinstitute.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:32 AM
So many issues Today programme could have asked Charlie Mayfield about on his new report. Very odd to pursue a line of enquiry about whether the UK statutory sick pay is too generous (we have one of the least generous systems in the OECD).
November 5, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Don’t think a 0.3% downgrade is especially surprising (regardless of analysts’ expectations). As brutal as the Budget will be for HMT, I expect they’d prefer this to 3 years of consecutive small downgrades.

on.ft.com/3WWvlq6 Reeves faces £20bn hit to UK public finances from productivity downgrade
Reeves faces £20bn hit to UK public finances from productivity downgrade
Bigger than expected reduction in OBR forecast deals blow to chancellor ahead of Budget
on.ft.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Utterly brutal but completely necessary. Should never have been allowed to go on this long. Hope the fans now go in numbers to support & spend.
Julian Pitts, Kris Wigfield and Paul Stanley of Begbies Traynor have been appointed joint administrators of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Limited and of Sheffield 3 Limited, the company that owns the club’s stadium, on 24 October 2025.

👉 www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/oc...
October 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
Delighted to see NELI, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme, described as an ‘education silver bullet’ by @beckyfrancis.bsky.social in @schoolsweek.bsky.social. NELI is a programme for reception pupils in England who need extra support with speech & language development. bit.ly/47CEtq3
‘I dream the curriculum every night’: Becky Francis profile
Becky Francis reflects on control, compromise, and finding the balance between ‘firebrand’ and 'technocrat'
bit.ly
October 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Yikes.
October 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Crucial scene-setting by @theifs.bsky.social in its Green Budget which @nuffieldfoundation.org is pleased to support.
NEW: The Chancellor almost certainly has a fiscal repair job on her hands at next month’s Budget.

But doing the bare minimum risks another fiscal groundhog day next year.

🧵 THREAD on our new IFS Green Budget's findings on the UK's economic outlook and fiscal situation:
October 16, 2025 at 7:22 AM
All Budgets are billed as important but this one is set to be especially challenging.

Pleased @nuffieldfoundation.org supports @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget which illuminates the key choices & trade-offs.

Here's the chapter on options for tax increases.

ifs.org.uk/publications...
Options for tax increases | Institute for Fiscal Studies
If the Chancellor hopes to raise large sums from tax increases at the Budget, she should consider reforms that would make any increases less damaging.
ifs.org.uk
October 13, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Being clear about what is happening to graduates in the jobs market is important in its own right - but also because simplistic analysis just feeds the beast of suspect narrative (it's all AI etc)

More clear thinking from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
October 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Well worth reading this thoughtful interview on race, identity and much else with the optimistic realist @sundersays.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 7:27 PM
I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of this.
October 6, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Some of the most thoughtful social commentary atm is coming via @manchestermill.bsky.social

manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...
Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story
‘We thought we were the luckiest people in the world to be born in Manchester’
manchestermill.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 4:08 PM
When should (& shouldn’t) political differences be bridged?

A rich and timely conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates & @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/4jQE...
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines
open.spotify.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Gavin Kelly
Somewhere free, quiet, and right next to Liverpool Street? 👀

Whether you’ve got a deadline looming, are polishing off a chapter on your lunch break, or hunting for a calm spot to do some work, our new Reading Room is open to you.

👋 https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/whats-on/activity/reading-room/
Reading Room | Bishopsgate Institute
The Reading Room is separate to the Researchers’ Service, so if you’d like to look at our special collections and archives, you’ll need this instead https:
www.bishopsgate.org.uk
October 3, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Thoughtful provocation from the always interesting Geoff Mulgan on the urgent need for future-facing exploratory social science.

geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/an-aria-fo...
An ARIA for social issues?
The case for exploratory social science
geoffmulgan.substack.com
October 4, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Pleased that @nuffieldfoundation.org support @fullfact.org & their important work.
October 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Good to see the commitment to a job guarantee for young people long-term excluded from work or learning. Vital step. Lots of other elements needed to get this right. My recent thoughts.

on.ft.com/3ILpb8T Let’s not forget the young people without GCSEs
Let’s not forget the young people without GCSEs
We should realise that training alongside decent work is a better next step for some 16-year-olds
on.ft.com
September 29, 2025 at 8:12 AM