Institute for Public Policy Research

The Institute for Public Policy Research, known as IPPR, is a UK centre-left think tank researching economic and social policy. On 6 August 2026 it argued that joint procurement and stockpiling with allies could create £3.4bn of borrowing headroom against a defence spending PATH to 3% of GDP by 2030, costed at about £13bn a year.

The proposal targets how defence spending is delivered, sharing procurement and stockpiling costs with allies, rather than how much is spent. It was published a day before the Adam Smith Institute argued that higher income tax rates would cut revenue, putting the two think tanks on opposite sides of the same week's fiscal debate.

Read together, the two interventions frame the live question behind the defence spending PATH: whether the money comes from efficiency, as IPPR argues, or would need tax rises the Adam Smith Institute says would be self-defeating.