21 Facts About Policy Exchange

Policy Exchange is a right-wing, British conservative think tank based in London.

Policy Exchange ideas developed by the think tank which have been adopted as government policy include free schools, Police and Crime Commissioners, Garden Villages and protecting the armed forces from lawfare.

Policy Exchange has a unit called Judicial Power Project that examines the power of the British judiciary and argues that unelected judges have accrued too much power.

Policy Exchange was set up in 2002 by a group including Nicholas Boles, Michael Gove and Francis Maude.

Policy Exchange is currently Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

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In January 2020, Policy Exchange hosted a high-level public discussion with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, at a prominent location in Westminster.

Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, responding to Stephen Kinnock at a Policy Exchange event at Labour Party Conference in autumn 2020, argued that there is a need to "reset" British foreign policy towards the Indo-Pacific.

Integration Hub, in partnership with Policy Exchange, explores ethnic integration across five distinct themes – Residential Patterns, Work and Welfare, Society and Everyday Life, Education, and Attitudes and Identity.

In December 2019, in the Policy Exchange paper, Protecting the Constitution, the Head of the Judicial Power Project, Professor Richard Ekins, wrote about the expansion of judicial power in the UK in recent years and how and why Parliament is responsible for maintaining the balance of the constitution and should restate limits on judicial power by restoring the political constitution and the common law tradition.

Policy Exchange authors have included former government advisor Professor Dieter Helm, economist Robert Shiller, author and broadcaster Bill Bryson, historian and journalist Anna Reid, former Financial Times journalist John Willman, and Olympic athlete James Cracknell.

In June 2018, Policy Exchange published Building More, Building Beautiful, which argued that if developers build more homes in ways that the public find beautiful, there will be less opposition to new housebuilding.

In 2013 Policy Exchange published The Fog of Law, which argued that the increasing application of civilian norms to military conflict, and resulting increase in legal claims against the Ministry of Defence, risked undermining the effectiveness of the armed forces and therefore the security of the nation.

In January 2017, Policy Exchange published a paper by the economists Gerard Lyons and Liam Halligan which argued that the United Kingdom should leave the European Economic Area when it leaves the European Union and that the British economy could thrive trading under World Trade Organisation tariffs.

In June 2015, Policy Exchange published 'Overlooked But Decisive: Connecting with England's Just about Managing classes'.

In March 2011, Policy Exchange published a report that argued government should reform the Use Classes Order to make it much easier to move buildings and land from Use Classes A and B to C3.

In October 2019, in anticipation of the UK December election, Policy Exchange published McDonnellomics: How Labour's economic agenda would transform the UK.

In November 2019, Policy Exchange published a paper arguing that universities should be places of free speech and should avoid a 'culture of conformity'.

Gavin Williamson endorsed the paper in an article in The Times in which he wrote, 'Despite the “snowflake” stereotype, recent polling by the Policy Exchange think tank shows a large number of students want an environment in which they're free to hear a diversity of views.

In October 2020, Policy Exchange established a Commission of "heavy-hitters" to examine how the Civil Service could be improved and modernised.

In October 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in what was his first appearance at a think tank as Prime Minister, introduced the author Charles Moore at a Policy Exchange event marking the book launch of Moore's 'Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone'.

Policy Exchange appeared with Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, the Education Secretary, and Philip Augar.