Formerly Reform think tank. Re:State is an independent, cross-party public services think tank.
London
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You may have noticed something different about us...
After nearly 25 years as Reform think tank, today we've become Re:State
Same bold ideas to remake the State, new branding to reinforce our strict independence.
Read more about our rename here 👇
re-state.co.uk/rethink/the-n…
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The Re:View is out! This week, Director of Strategy @jo3hill looks at an overlooked consequence of the Renters’ Rights Act and asks whether a policy designed to make renting fairer could end up making the housing crisis worse.
Read Joe’s take 👇
restate.substack.com/p/the-r…
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In case you missed it📢
Last week, our Director of Strategy, Joe Hill @jo3hill, wrote a piece for @CSWnews reflecting on the results of our recent publication, 'The Alternative People Survey 2026'.
Read here: civilserviceworld.com/news/a…
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Alex Walker @alwalks96, Head of our Re:Imagining the Local State programme, recently wrote for @themjcouk, sharing his thoughts on the direction of the Government’s Fiscal Devolution Roadmap.
Read here: themj.co.uk/fiscal-devolutio…
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Re:State retweeted
Gosh... who would have guessed this would happen?
We absolutely need to be more preventative, @restate_thinks has consistently argued PDEL is not the answer
Yvette Cooper has made an early bid for vast swathes of NHS budget to be protected as "preventative"
Other depts facing cuts will likely do the same. Battle to define "PDEL" during the spending review process will be worth watching
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In case you missed it📢
'The Alternative People Survey 2026' was covered by @CSWnews last week. The publication explores the findings of our survey that asked government officials directly about the culture, capability and performance of Whitehall. civilserviceworld.com/news/a…
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The Re:View is out! This week, @ce_pickles asks how long the Government can put off the difficult decisions on public spending, and what this week’s changing messages on welfare tell us.
Read more 👇
restate.substack.com/p/the-r…
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The Chancellor warned of economic “storms”. But has the Autumn Budget done enough to weather them?
Our latest Re:Act breaks down the good, the bad and the 'why didn't you just get on with it'.
Read on 👉restate.substack.com/p/react…
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Re:State retweeted
Whitehall has a people problem...
7% think the Civil Service manages poor performance well
63% think managers are incentivised to move poor performers around, rather than out, of Whitehall
11% of line managers say processes for managing poor performers are straightforward
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More than half of the civil servants we surveyed disagree that talented people rise to the top of the civil service. Respondents told us that the only way to get promoted is often to leave their team, or the civil service altogether.
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Read the full Alternative People Survey here: re-state.co.uk/publications/…
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More than three-quarters of the civil servants we surveyed do not think the civil service manages poor performance well, little changed since our first survey in 2025. Rewiring the State will be difficult while that remains the case.
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Read the full Alternative People Survey here: re-state.co.uk/publications/…
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Today we published the results of our Alternative People Survey's 2026 edition, done in partnership with @CSWnews and Public First. Andrew Noore has written about what the survey tells us about Whitehall for our Substack 👇
restate.substack.com/p/why-w…
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The Alternative People Survey 2026 is out! With @CSWnews and @stonehaven_uk , we asked 1,747 civil servants how Whitehall is really working. AI use is up, but on recruitment, promotion and performance, little has changed. Read the full report here:
re-state.co.uk/publications/…
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The Re:View is out! With next week’s Budget approaching, @alwalks96 looks at the growing role of ‘PuFins’ in the Government’s economic strategy and why they deserve closer scrutiny. Read more 👇
restate.substack.com/p/the-r…
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The Re:View is out!
This week, Dr Simon Kaye @stkaye explores how AI is reshaping the civil service - and asks whether the Government can get its AI revolution past its own workforce.
Read here👇
restate.substack.com/p/the-r…
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Always nice to see ideas from Re:State out there in the wild, doubly nice when it’s in the Times. Great read from @dominicoc citing our essay on Everythingism. It must be stopped!
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The Re:View is out!
This week, Matthew Feeney, explores why the state of public finances depends on more than navigating tax and spend trade-offs and why the Government must consider the risks and fiscal responsibilities of devolution ahead of the Budget. restate.substack.com/p/the-r…
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Re:State retweeted
Good to join the @restate_thinks panel at #CPC26 today with Richard Fuller, @rcolvile and @deCoverlyVeale.
For any new rule we need to be asking: is it necessary, has its cumulative cost been checked, what are the knock-on effects? If it fails, Parliament should say no.
But as we know, Parliament has a very poor record of saying no. Not one Statutory Instrument has been rejected since 1979, and only 16 out of 169k have been rejected since 1950. Delegated Legislation Committees last on average 26 minutes. Many are much shorter than this.
Modern regulation is highly technical and sits in regulators’ rule books (with the FCA handbook running to 7,000 pages, for example) and a lesson from my few years in Parliament is that its governance is simply not good enough to properly hold our powerful regulators to account.
We need to be more thoughtful and strategic. A country that regulates out of fear of the last crisis will not win the next one.
Regulation should be proportionate, accountable to Parliament, and built for those who take risks.
Thanks to Re:State for hosting today's #CPC26 panel.
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