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.