When money is tight, spending decisions must be evidence-based

With public finances under pressure and expectations rising, the public sector cannot afford decisions based on assumption. Jane Frost CBE, CEO of Market Research Society sets out why robust insight is critical to delivering effective, efficient services in a challenging fiscal landscape.

With the dust now firmly settled on the Autumn Budget, government departments and public sector organisations are confronting the economic reality they now face as they head into a new year.
A combined £26bn in tax rises over the remainder of the parliament means the public is now being asked to contribute more than it has since the Second World War.  At the same time, fiscal headroom remains tight, and budgets across the board are limited.  The result?  Every penny of public money spent will undoubtedly continue to face intense public and media scrutiny throughout the course of 2026.

In this context, it’s critical that decision makers can be certain that their resources are being directed as effectively and efficiently as possible.  Having the necessary confidence will only be achieved if decisions are supported by robust evidence and insight.

Insights to save
When finances are tight, there can be an irresistible temptation to scale back spending entirely to help balance the books.

The first things to go are often those deemed to be luxuries.  For some, research and insights budgets can fall into this bracket.  Both internal and external insights teams can be viewed as simply a ‘nice to have’ or even a distraction when so much focus is being placed on achieving efficiency within day-to-day spending.

However, cutting research budgets to save money in the short term is counterintuitive and can end up costing you down the line. 

It means you lose sight of how your audiences think and feel, leading to decisions based on speculation rather than solid understanding.  At the very least, this can result in increased calls to helplines and the creation of content and services that fail to resonate.  More seriously, making assumptions about factors such as literacy and numeracy levels can cause confusion and anxiety – which can be particularly concerning when dealing with matters of public health or finance.

I found this during my time at HMRC, where my team undertook a piece of research to uncover why people were making so many errors when filling out seemingly simple tax forms.

We found that these mistakes were the result of an overload of guidance being offered by the department, which was actually causing people confusion rather than clarity.  To aid understanding, we needed to scale things back – sometimes less is more. By streamlining the guidance and simplifying the language based on the findings, not only did we reduce errors, saving unnecessary admin and processing time within the team, but we were also able to save significant sums on printing extensive – but largely unhelpful – advice packs. 

This is just one in a long list of examples from across the public sector, where an up-front investment in research paid dividends in terms of achieving cost savings in the long run. 

Delivering true value for money
Across almost all government departments and organisations, the current focus isn’t solely on managing budgets but also on delivering truly transformative projects and services.
Since the election, the government has consistently committed to delivering an ambitious policy agenda across a range of different areas.  Heading into 2026, the pressure will be on the public sector to deliver.

Achieving this at a time when finances are tight has its obvious challenges.  There simply isn’t spare budget to be wasted on policy programmes that fail to get off the ground.  Besides the day-to-day, additional spending needs to be focused on initiatives that will be certain to deliver value for money.

In its quest to make generational progress on health policy, it was pleasing to see the NHS place surveying stakeholders at the centre of its ambitious 10 Year Health Plan.

Working with a consortium of leading research and insights agencies, led by Thinks Insight & Strategy, it engaged extensively with both the public and its own staff to help inform its strategy.  This involved surveying a total of 250,000 people, including those from groups often hard to reach and whose views may not often be heard in the shaping of national policy decisions. 

Consulting to this extent has helped deliver a well-informed and comprehensive strategy which the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care are now using to shape public health decisions for the next ten years.  Not only this, but it has created a blueprint for regional organisations to follow at the relevant scale, ensuring that local health services deliver for their communities.

From healthcare to digital safety – the rapid developments in AI and related technologies have left organisations like Ofcom with a significant battle on their hands to keep people safe online.

Faced with a rapidly evolving landscape of video-sharing platforms and the need to implement effective safety regulations, Ofcom partnered with research consultancy Verian to understand user behaviour and test safety interventions.

This led to the development of the "Behaviour Change Lab" – a fully functional, albeit simulated, video-sharing platform.  This unique approach allowed researchers to conduct a series of randomised controlled trials, essentially running safe experiments to see how users interacted with different safety features without exposing them to real risks. The research identified crucial design elements that could effectively promote safer user choices, such as placing reporting tools on the main control bar to dramatically increase their use and prompting users to flag negative content.

These findings are now directly informing Ofcom's regulatory framework for online safety, demonstrating how targeted, intelligent research can deliver significant public value and shape the future of a safer digital world.

Data and insight are crucial for navigating change
As the government looks to deliver its ambitious policy agenda under increasing pressure, the public sector must harness the insights of the research sector.

Not only can research help to identify where efficiencies in spending can be made, but it also plays a leading role in helping to shape effective policy initiatives that deliver value for money in the best interests of the country.  

Only by doing so can it tackle the challenges we collectively face with confidence and ensure it delivers effective policy in the best interests of the country.