The Policy Fix – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Policy Fix

Nesta

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/11d. Total Eps: 15

Policy Fix is where Britain's smartest minds come to solve problems, not just debate them. While other podcasts focus on what's broken or the day-to-day ups and downs of politics, we focus on what works and how to make it happen. We move beyond the political headlines to focus on what works and how to make it happen. Hosted by Nesta, the research and innovation foundation, we explore bold ideas and radical thinking on policy that will drive our country forward. Join us to discover the bold ideas and radical thinking on policy that will drive our country forward.

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Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - nonProfit
01/09/2026
#97
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
01/09/2026
#1
🇫🇷 France - nonProfit
01/09/2026
#78
🇨🇦 Canada - nonProfit
31/08/2026
#75
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
31/08/2026
#1
🇫🇷 France - nonProfit
31/08/2026
#70
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
30/08/2026
#3
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
29/08/2026
#1
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
28/08/2026
#1
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nonProfit
27/08/2026
#2

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Score global : 58%

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The Policy Fix | Trailer

Season 1 · Episode 1

Monday, March 9, 2026 • Duration 00:48

Something’s coming 🎙️

We’re stepping into the studio to tackle the UK’s biggest challenges - not just to debate the problems, but to find the fixes.

Make sure you subscribe to this brand new podcast from, Nesta.

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How to reform the UK's tax system

Season 1 · Episode 1

Thursday, March 12, 2026 • Duration 45:10

The UK tax system has been described by experts as irrational, a mess and a nightmare. But what would genuinely reforming it look like - and why have successive chancellors ducked it for so long?

In this first episode of The Policy Fix, Tim Leunig (chief economist, Nesta) and Helen Miller (director, Institute for Fiscal Studies) break down the biggest structural problems in Britain’s tax system: the distortions created by how we tax employment versus self-employment versus dividends; the £80bn cost of VAT exemptions and why a flapjack is legally different from a muesli bar; why stamp duty is almost universally agreed to be a bad tax - and why it still exists; and whether wealth taxes are a serious policy option or an idea that sounds better than it works.

They also debate what a reforming Chancellor should actually do: go big and bold, or chip away incrementally? And they end with one policy each that they’d push through if they were Prime Minister for a day.

Sharp, evidence-based and surprisingly entertaining - this is UK tax policy for people who want to understand the real arguments.

The Policy Fix is produced by Nesta.

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:40 What's wrong with the UK tax system?

00:03:55 Why have chancellors avoided reform for so long?

00:10:11 The biggest structural problem: income, NI & dividends

00:13:12 The VAT chaos: flapjacks, gingerbread men & £80bn in exemptions

00:16:00 How to actually reform: what should a Chancellor do first?

00:22:49 Stamp duty & property tax: the case for abolition

00:27:04 Wealth taxes: effective policy or zombie idea?

00:31:44 Quick wins, capital gains & green/vehicle taxes

00:35:10 Political bravery: are politicians or the system to blame?

00:39:49 Expert commissions vs. the Chancellor acting now

00:43:42 One policy to transform the UK economy

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How to fix the way government works

Season 1 · Episode 2

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 • Duration 52:35

Successive governments have promised to reform the British state. Most have left it harder to navigate than they found it. So what would genuinely fixing the way government works actually look like?

In this episode of The Policy Fix, Jill Rutter (Senior Fellow, Institute for Government) and Andrew Greenway (founder of A Bit Digital and former senior civil servant) join host Joe Owen to examine why Whitehall struggles to deliver: the civil service’s misaligned incentives, the gap between policy and delivery, and why Labour’s mission-driven government ran out of steam.

They also explore what the rare successes GDS, the vaccine taskforce, Brexit, Covid actually have in common, and what it would take to replicate that more broadly.

They end with a quickfire question: if Keir Starmer called you tomorrow and said he wanted to move fast and break things, what’s the one thing you’d tell him to break?

Frank, expert and full of practical insight, this is the state reform conversation that Whitehall needs to be having.

The Policy Fix is produced by Nesta.

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:53 Do we have a government delivery problem?

00:06:18 What happened to Labour's mission-driven government?

00:12:07 Why do politicians struggle to get things done?

00:15:52 Has governing fundamentally changed?

00:22:12 What the Government Digital Service (GDS) got right

00:27:24 The “project” model: lessons from the Olympics

00:30:23 The policy vs delivery divide in Whitehall

00:34:06 Brexit and Covid: what government can do well

00:39:41 Do we need a wholesale review of the British state?

How to make the UK a world leader in public sector AI

Season 1 · Episode 5

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 • Duration 42:46

The UK has no shortage of AI strategies, summits and action plans. But a stack of policy papers doesn't retrain a civil servant, fix a legacy data system, or scale a pilot beyond a single department. The real challenge is execution.

In this episode of Policy Fix, Nesta's podcast on the ideas and reforms that matter, host Joe Owen is joined by two people who know what it actually takes to get things done inside government: James Kuht, former member of the Prime Minister's Data Science Team at No.10 and now CEO of AI workforce company Pair, and Mallory Durran, who led the government's Incubator for AI and now heads Nesta's Applied Research and Methods team.

Together they argue that the UK is at a genuine inflection point but risks squandering it by mistaking activity for progress. They explore what separates real transformation from efficiency theatre: the internal barriers of skills, culture and creaking infrastructure; the pressures of Big Tech dependency and procurement inertia; and the question of whether the public sector has the risk appetite to actually innovate.

The UK does have real strategic advantages. This episode makes the case for what they are and how to build on them. But it ends with an honest question: are the reforms being discussed genuinely equal to the scale of the opportunity?

You will come away with actionable insights on bridging the implementation gap, building national AI capability beyond running pilots, and understanding the concrete reforms needed to turn policy ambition into operational reality.

What we cover:

- Why AI success in government comes down to senior leadership clarity, not technology

- The internal barriers blocking scale: skills, culture and legacy infrastructure

- How to manage AI risk by investing in workforce experimentation

- Whether the UK can compete with Big Tech or is inevitably dependent on it

- The bold bets that could genuinely transform health and education outcomes

How to make this the last ever UK energy crisis

Season 1 · Episode 4

Monday, April 20, 2026 • Duration 41:21

The UK is headed for another energy crisis. The war in Iran has choked energy markets and will be felt as another hit for inflation weary consumers and for the UK's beleagured economy.
What should government do now? And how can it act to make sure that it doesn't waste the crisis?
In this episode of Policy Fix, host Joe Owen sits down with Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy and director of Nesta's sustainable future mission, Madeleine Gabriel to untangle the acute effects of this latest energy shock from more long running challenges in the UK's energy economy.
They explore:

Why the UK is so exposed to energy shocks
How this crisis differs from the gas spike caused by the invasion by Russia of Ukraine
What the government should and shouldn't do to support consumers on rising bills
How to make electricity cheaper
What do to about North Sea Oil
How to run a massive energy saving campaign

If you're interested or work in energy policy, climate change, or economics, this episode is essential listening.
Nesta is a politically impartial research and innovation charity designing, testing, and scaling solutions to society's biggest problems. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and teaser

01:11 Welcome and episode overview

02:30 How the war in Iran is affecting energy markets

03:57 Is the UK more exposed than other countries?

04:35 How this crisis compares to the 2022 Ukraine gas spike

07:00 Lessons from 2022: what should government do now?

09:42 When and how should government intervene?

13:05 Supporting households: targeted vs general subsidies

16:27 Turbocharging electrification through the crisis

How to make social media safer for children

Season 1 · Episode 3

Thursday, April 2, 2026 • Duration 42:08

One in five children aged 3–5 already owns a smartphone and 95% of 13–15 year-olds have a social media profile. Is the UK's Online Safety Act failing to protect them and is a blanket ban on social media the answer?

In this episode of Policy Fix, host Joe Owen sits down with Tony Curzon Price, economist and policy fellow at Nesta, and Hannah Perry, Director at Demos, to untangle one of the most urgent policy debates of our time: how do we regulate social media for children without doing more harm than good?

They explore:

Why the Online Safety Act has 'barely touched the sides' and what went wrong
The evidence base for social media harm, from Jonathan Haidt's correlations to natural experiments tracking Facebook's campus rollout
Why Australia's age-based ban may push kids toward riskier, less regulated spaces
The case for product regulation - treating social media like a dangerous car that should be made safer, rather than trying to ban driving
Tony's bold proposal: a BBC Club Kids social network, launched by 2028
Hannah's vision for community-rooted digital spaces and epistemic sovereignty
What the government consultation should actually deliver, including bringing AI chatbots inside the scope of the Online Safety Act

If you work in policy, edtech, child welfare, or digital regulation or if you're a parent trying to make sense of a system that feels broken this episode is essential listening. Note that this episode was recorded before the recent judgement against Meta and YouTube in the US.

Nesta is a politically impartial research and innovation charity designing, testing, and scaling solutions to society's biggest problems. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episode Chapters

00:00 What’s coming up: "A full-time job for parents": the social media treadmill

01:09 Welcome to Policy Fix. Introducing Joe, Tony Curzon Price & Hannah Perry

02:01 Setting the scene: is this a moral panic, or something genuinely different?

How to settle the UK’s place in Europe

Season 1 · Episode 6

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 • Duration 42:23

Brexit was supposed to be “done”. Yet in 2026, Britain’s place in Europe is right back at the top of the political agenda

While Keir Starmer’s government has promised a pragmatic relationship “reset,” figures like Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting are already looking further ahead towards considering a full rejoin. In a more fragile world order, with greater geopolitical insecurity, the discussion on where we sit in Europe has never been more pertinent.

In the latest episode of the Policy Fix podcast, host Joe Owen sits down with Professor Anand Menon, director of UK in a Changing Europe and Tim Leunig, chief economist at Nesta

They weigh the economic cost of being outside the EU, estimated by the best academic work at six to eight per cent of GDP, and ask whether the government’s strategy of selective alignment and sectoral deals adds up to a new phase or more of the same.

The conversation covers free movement and the single market, the customs union, the politics of immigration and cost of living, why the EU has little incentive to make life easy for the UK, and whether rejoining is realistic given the current political climate.

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How to fix our broken food system

Season 1 · Episode 7

Monday, June 29, 2026 • Duration 41:54

Right now in the UK, around two-thirds of all adults are living with excess weight and obesity. This is not just a crisis for adults - more than one in 5 primary school-aged children in England are now living with it.

A year ago, the government set out a ‘moonshot’ to end the obesity epidemic in the 10 Year Health Plan for England. However, successive governments have announced almost 700 initiatives to tackle obesity in the last 30 years - in that time, rates have doubled.

So why has nothing worked and what would it actually take to turn the tide?

In this episode of the Policy Fix podcast from Nesta, host Joe Owen is joined by Dr Dolly van Tulleken, an obesity and food policy expert and visiting researcher at Cambridge University, and Hugo Harper, director of Nesta’s Healthy Life Mission, which aims to halve obesity in the UK by 2030.

Together they unpack the food environment that shapes what we eat, why so many policies get watered down or delayed and what the evidence really says works. They dig into the junk food advertising ban and its loopholes, the sugar tax, GLP-1 weight loss drugs, the new healthy food standard and the lessons from tobacco control. The conclusion is hopeful: with the right mix of solutions, halving obesity is possible.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more on the policy problems that shape our lives, and how to fix them.

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How Andy Burnham can build a sovereign digital state, with Mallory Durran | Episode 3: Andy Burnham's first 100 days

Season 2 · Episode 3

Tuesday, July 28, 2026 • Duration 39:14

The UK spends billions renting back access to its own data from private vendors, leaving crucial public information locked away in disconnected systems. That fragmentation holds back public service reform, stifles innovation and hampers economic growth.

If new Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants to transform the UK from a passive tech tenant into a sovereign digital architect, reforming our digital infrastructure is non-negotiable. So where should he begin?

In this special deep-dive from the Policy Fix, Nesta's policy podcast, Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy sits down with some of the country’s leading experts on policy and government. Rather than just rehearsing the problems facing Burnham, they'll stress-test the big ideas that should shape his agenda, discuss the policy solutions he should actually pursue, and map out the steps he should take to get started in his first 100 days.

In this episode, Ravi is joined by Nesta's director of applied research methods, Mallory Durran, to explore how government can take back control of our digital public infrastructure.

They unpack why adopting common digital standards across government could reduce costs, improve services and end dependence on a handful of technology suppliers; how applying the principles behind Open Banking to healthcare could accelerate medical research, improve patient care and help grow the UK's health tech sector; and why attracting and retaining world-class technical talent should be treated as a national priority for effective government.

Liked the episode? Rate, review, subscribe - and share with your network.

We are a UK charity and our work is enabled by a financial endowment. Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833.

To find out more or connect with us, check out our website and socials:

Website: nesta.org.uk

Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/nestauk.bsky.social

Facebook:facebook.com/nesta.uk

How Andy Burnham can tackle the real drivers of ill health, with Hugo Harper | Episode 2: Andy Burnham's first 100 days

Season 2 · Episode 2

Tuesday, July 28, 2026 • Duration 47:50

Andy Burnham wants to help people live well by building a preventative state. But the UK remains trapped in a struggling health system, burdened by chronic illness and soaring costs. How can he tackle the root causes of ill health - from poor housing to obesity - rather than just treating the symptoms?

In this special deep-dive from the Policy Fix, Nesta's policy podcast, Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy sits down with some of the country’s leading experts on policy and government. Rather than just rehearsing the problems facing Burnham, they stress-test the big ideas that should shape his agenda, discuss the policy solutions he should actually pursue, and map out the steps he should take to get started in his first 100 days.

In this episode, Ravi Gurumurthy and Hugo Harper, director of our healthy life mission, break down the biggest drivers of ill health, the societal and economic costs at play - and the practical fixes Andy Burnham should focus on first.

Our duo set out an evidence-led blueprint for making prevention the foundation of the UK’s health system, exploring outcome-based regulation for major food retailers, smarter tax incentives to reduce alcohol harm, the strategic rollout of weight-loss medications (GLP-1s) and licensing prescription e-cigarettes to accelerate the decline in smoking.

Liked the episode? Rate, review, subscribe - and share with your network.

We are a UK charity and our work is enabled by a financial endowment. Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833.

To find out more or connect with us, check out our website and socials:

Website: nesta.org.uk

Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/nestauk.bsky.social

Facebook:facebook.com/nesta.uk

Instagram: instagram.com/nesta_uk/hl=en

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/nesta

The Policy Fix – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

The Policy Fix – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify