An independent voice grounded in evidence
The Great British Think Tank was founded on a simple premise: that honest economic analysis is too important to be left to institutions with a stake in the answer. Britain is awash with commentary. What it is short of is rigour.
We work from official statistics, hard data, and market reality. We do not start from a political conclusion and work backwards. We do not soften findings to protect relationships, manage narratives, or avoid awkward conversations with ministers. If the numbers say something uncomfortable, we say it.
Our contributors come from markets, business, academia, and public policy — economists, entrepreneurs, and domain experts united by a shared intolerance for the kind of institutional groupthink that has allowed Britain's productivity collapse, its ballooning state, its energy cost crisis, and its strangled planning system to persist largely unchallenged by the people whose job it is to challenge them.
We are non-partisan, self-funded, and editorially independent. And we believe the public is considerably more capable of handling the truth than Westminster generally assumes.
British economist specialising in monetary regime design and central bank reform, and the public voice of GBTT. He spent more than 25 years in the City of London as a macro and fixed income specialist at investment banks and hedge funds, and was Director of the Institute of International Monetary Research. A columnist at CapX, his work has been published in The Telegraph, The Spectator and CityAM, and by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The people who hold us to account
The Academic Advisory Council brings together five figures from academia, business, financial markets, journalism and public life. Its purpose is not to manufacture consensus but to bring serious experience, scrutiny and intellectual challenge to GBTT's work. Members serve in an advisory capacity and remain independent; membership does not imply endorsement of every GBTT publication or policy position.
Chairman and co-owner of Gail's bakeries and a director and co-owner of Inspecs Group plc. Previously chairman of PizzaExpress plc, Channel 4 Television and the Institute of Cancer Research. Wrote a weekly business column for 20 years, in succession for The Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Sunday Times.
One of Britain's leading historians and the author of best-selling books on the Tudors. He has guest-curated major historical exhibitions and made some of the most widely watched historical documentary series on television. A prominent commentator on current affairs through his channel David Starkey Talks, his call for a Great Repeal Act to undo the constitutional innovations of the Blair government commands increasingly wide agreement.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham and an internationally recognised education scholar. He held academic positions at Oxford, Manchester and Newcastle, where he was Professor of Education Policy. His pioneering research into low-cost private education has won major international awards, including the Templeton Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty.
Financial markets commentator and former Bloomberg Opinion columnist with almost four decades of experience in global markets. Before moving into financial journalism he was head of fixed income and held other senior investment banking roles, including at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and SBC Warburg, now UBS.
Financial journalist, commentator and founder of The Blind Spot. She spent 13 years at the Financial Times, latterly as editor of FT Alphaville, before becoming Senior Finance Editor at POLITICO Europe. Her work focuses on financial markets, monetary policy and the intersection of economics, finance and technology.
Analysis that holds institutions to account
GBTT produces rigorous, readable economic analysis across the issues that matter most to Britain's long-run prosperity. Our work draws on official statistics, macroeconomic data, and comparative international evidence — and our published work shows its workings.
Economic Analysis
In-depth work on productivity, fiscal policy, monetary conditions, energy economics, and supply-side reform. Always data-led. Always independently sourced.
Policy Scrutiny
We assess the real-world impact of legislation, regulation, and public spending decisions — not the Treasury's preferred version of events, but what the numbers actually show.
Commentary
Our contributors write for national publications and appear across broadcast media. Rigorous economic thinking into public debate — without the usual softening for political convenience.
Institutional Oversight
We scrutinise the Bank of England, the OBR, and other public bodies against their mandates and their own published data. Transparency runs both ways.
Six things, stated plainly
The six areas where our work concentrates. Each one links to the file.
Lower taxes
A tax system that rewards work, not dependency. The burden has grown under every government since 1997, regardless of party colour.
Honest spending
Every pound traced. A state that borrows in your name should account to you for where it went — welfare, debt interest, and the growth that never came.
An NHS measured by outcomes
Record funding, record queues. The question isn't whether we spend enough — it's what the money buys. Outcomes measured, bureaucracy counted.
Housing supply
Build. A house should cost three times what someone earns, not ten. The arithmetic is older than the problem.
Energy security
Energy priced for the people who use it, produced where it can be, stored for when it's needed.
AI on the record
The first rung of the career ladder is being automated away. We track what AI does to entry-level work, wages, and who collects the rent on the machines.
Common questions
GBTT believes that Britain's economic problems are real, measurable, and in large part the result of decades of policy mistakes that have never been properly accounted for. We believe the state has grown beyond what productivity can sustain. We believe energy costs are an economic catastrophe hiding in plain sight. We believe the planning system is strangling growth. And we believe that none of this will change until the analysis is honest.
We are not ideologues. We are not advocates for any party. We are economists, entrepreneurs, and experts across a range of fields who think the data matters more than the narrative — and that Britain's governing class has, for too long, prioritised the narrative.
No. GBTT has no party affiliation and accepts no funding from political parties or their affiliated organisations. We have been critical of the economic policies of all recent governments, and we expect that to continue.
Our contributors hold a range of views. What they share is a commitment to evidence and a scepticism of institutional complacency wherever they find it — regardless of which party is responsible.
Our analysis is grounded in data, not ideology. That said, we do not pretend to be neutral on first principles: we believe that economic freedom, sound money, and competitive markets have the best track record of producing prosperity. Where the data points the other way, we say so.
We hold no institutional position on any specific policy question. Individual contributors publish under their own names and their views are their own, not GBTT's.
GBTT is self-funded and independently run. We do not publish donor lists, donation amounts, funding breakdowns, or annual funding summaries.
We do not accept funding from government bodies, political parties, or organisations seeking to direct our research conclusions. Editorial independence is non-negotiable.
Support for GBTT, where accepted, does not buy influence over what we analyse, what we publish, or what conclusions we reach.
Yes. All GBTT publications are freely available and may be cited with attribution. We ask only that you link to or reference the original publication rather than summarising it in a way that changes its meaning.
If you are working on something that engages substantively with our analysis, we are happy to correspond directly — contact details are below.
We welcome approaches from economists, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and domain experts who have rigorous, data-led work to contribute. We are particularly interested in analysis that draws on official statistics, market data, or institutional performance records.
If you are interested in supporting GBTT's work, please get in touch directly. We are always looking for supporters who value independence and are comfortable not knowing in advance what conclusions the analysis will reach.
Self-funded. Editorially independent.
GBTT is self-funded and editorially independent. We do not publish donor lists, donation amounts, funding breakdowns, or annual funding summaries.
Our independence rests on a simple principle: no government body, political party, institution, donor, or outside organisation directs our analysis, editorial line, or publication decisions.
We publish our work because we believe the evidence supports it. Not because anyone has paid for a conclusion.
If you are interested in supporting GBTT, please contact us directly. Support does not buy influence, editorial control, or advance approval of our work.
Get in touch
We welcome enquiries from journalists, policymakers, business leaders, and members of the public. We will respond to all substantive questions about our work.