Bee Boileau
beeboileau.bsky.social
Bee Boileau
@beeboileau.bsky.social
Economist at the IFS
Much more detail on defence in our new report, in which we explore the past and future of defence spending - in the UK and elsewhere - and discuss the links between spending and capabilities, as well as between defence spending and growth: ifs.org.uk/publications...
UK defence spending: composition, commitments and challenges | Institute for Fiscal Studies
We examine the past and future of UK defence spending, considering the fiscal and economic consequences of the government’s commitments.
ifs.org.uk
September 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Not planning to combine the two (at least currently!!) but there is an update of the 'be the chancellor' tool coming - watch this space. Should be out pre-Spending Review
April 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
We've written a comment alongside the tool, here: ifs.org.uk/articles/exp.... This gives another example of how you can use the tool, pulling out the strong regional differences in spending. And Max goes over some more examples here: bsky.app/profile/maxw...
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
4️⃣: you can break down total spending, or a category of spending, into its components, either UK-wide or in a certain region/nation (as well as splitting by 'current' or 'capital' spend)

e.g. here's how benefits, state pension, and social service spending looked overall in 2023-24:
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
3️⃣: you can look at how spending on different things, or in different areas, has changed over time. You can 'index' to different years.

e.g. here's how real-terms per-person spending on health, education, and benefits, pensions, and social services looks compared to 2009-10:
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
2️⃣: you can compare levels of spending on different things between two regions or nations of the UK.

e.g. here's how London compares to the England-wide average in per-person spending on different types of benefits, state pension, and social services:
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
1️⃣: you can see the distribution of (relatively granular) types of spending across the UK. You can compare this spending to different denominators – to the population, regional GDP, etc.

e.g. here are sickness & disability benefits as a share of each region's GDP:
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM