The BBC story was, of course, quite enough to justify starting an interesting thread, which has been disrupted at times by petulant and irrelevant sniping. It is much better to read earlier posts before shooting off at random. It is advisable, when in a hole, to stop digging.

The IPPR report was not available at that time. The BBC summary, dated November 2nd, concluded with the words "The IPPR's report is due to be published next week."

Now it has been published. My query was directed at finding if it is possible to read it online.