Policy Brief connects expertise with decision makers and their advisers — delivering in-depth specialist advice that is politically informed. Our aim is to support better policy making and outcomes for everyone. Solutions are there — we are here to promote them and support their delivery.
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Britain has a defence plan it cannot afford. The 2025 Strategic Defence Review was a necessary wish list, but no efficiency drive will fund it, and the promised 3.5 per cent of GDP will not arrive. The Streeting Review argues that the Defence Secretary must own a review that starts from a realistic budget, around 2.7 per cent, and shapes Britain’s commitments to fit it.
That means hard political choices. Ministers must face down vested interests and tell allies what Britain can and cannot do. They must also accept that the ring-fenced cost of renewing the nuclear deterrent will squeeze the rest of the budget. As Sir Michael Quinlan warned, defence planning is not a shopping list sent to the Treasury. One fighting division that can be sustained and reinforced is worth more than two on paper.
It also means getting more from every pound. Doubling the reserves would add deterrent capability at modest cost, drawing on the programme that trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian recruits. So would ships cheap enough to deploy and risk, rather than too precious to lose.
Clean power can also be cheap power, if policy keeps pace with technology. Green, Cheap and Smart Energy opens with the human cost of getting it wrong: David Reiner (Judge Business School, Cambridge) confronts the scandal of avoidable winter deaths in the UK.
On storage, Pete Roche welcomes Ofgem’s first round of long-duration storage support, which backs 16 projects and nearly triples Britain’s storable electricity. He warns, though, that the round leans heavily on pumped hydro and lithium-ion, leaving little room for cheaper emerging technologies. A swift second round should back sodium-ion and iron-air batteries, alongside a plan for hydrogen to cover long windless spells.
On nuclear, Emeritus Professor Stephen Thomas traces two decades of stop-go policy and concludes there is little prospect of new nuclear power before 2040. By then, the UK will have run on less nuclear power than today for over a decade, while renewables deliver several times as much at lower cost. He questions whether the staggering cost of Sizewell C, falling on consumers and taxpayers, can be justified.
At Policy Brief we bring insight and commentary from leading experts to policy makers and opinion formers. We challenge existing views and inform public debate and policy makers with the aim of contributing to improved policy and investment decisions that benefit the whole of society.
We are focused geographically on public policy in the UK, including a particular focus on its northern regions, and the EU. At the global level, we are concerned with promoting conflict resolution, stability, and development.
At a time of extraordinary challenge, independent and expert policy analysis and evidence-based solutions have never been more needed. Policy Brief is designed to help meet that challenge.
Thank you for reading.
Editor, Policy Brief
From 1992-2012 Roderick Crawford directed Parliamentary Brief with great style and effect. Policy Brief has the capacity to illuminate the issues in British politics in a decisive way
Policy Brief offers reliable and carefully researched policy analysis in a marketplace dominated by narrow Westminster interests. In Roderick Crawford clients work with the former editor of Parliamentary Brief and benefit from his expertise on economic policy, social policy, the North, and UK-EU relations.
When I was trying to draw attention to the potential ill-effects of children’s changing lifestyles on their physical and mental health, it was difficult to interest either press or politicians. Roderick Crawford saw the merit in my work and not only gave me a platform but published a series of articles on childhood issues.
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