The State of the State in 2019

For The State of the State 2019 Deloitte LLP commissioned Ipsos to survey c.1,360 UK adults on their attitudes to tax and government spending, public services, social mobility, devolution, the environment and climate change. We found that…

Tax and government spending

• Most people say they are ready to accept higher taxes in return for extended public services – a picture that’s remained broadly consistent since 2016. This comes alongside a feeling that most public services are set to deteriorate in the near future, with 50% expecting the NHS to get worse over the next five years and only 23% expecting it to get better. Optimism about the future of opportunities for young people and the quality of the environment has also fallen over the last few years.

Local control over public services

• Three in five (60%) want to see more local control over public services. Although a third aren’t interested in how their local public services work, just under one in five (18%) want to have more of a say.

Inequality and social mobility

• Belief in equality of opportunity is in decline, with only 33% thinking that people have equal opportunities to get ahead compared to over half (53%) in 2008. Alongside this, almost half (45%) believe that today’s youth will have a worse life than their parents – up from only 12% in 2003. Only 30% think they will have a better life than their parents, down from 43% in 2003.

Environment and climate change

• A clear majority of the public wants to see the Government doing more to encourage people to protect the environment. This includes regulating businesses, bans and taxes on environmentally-unfriendly products, more public information, and subsidies for environmentally-friendly options.

Full report

• Read the full findings on the Deloitte website

Technical note:

• Fieldwork was conducted between 26th July and 17th August 2019.
• In total, 1,360 interviews were conducted using Capibus – Ipsos’s face-to-face Omnibus. All questions include all respondents unless stated otherwise (all adults aged 15+ in the United Kingdom).
• The results have been weighted to reflect the known profile of the adult population of the United Kingdom.
• Trend data are from a number of different surveys. As some these surveys were conducted online or via telephone the trends are indicative only.
• Where responses do not sum to 100, this is due to computer rounding or multicode questions