Publications
All Policy Exchange publications are free to download in .pdf format. You can also purchase hard copies of the majority of our reports – check each individual report page for details.

Recent Publications

Environmental Affairs – The Geopolitics of Climate Change
Policy ExchangeEnvironmental Affairs is Policy Exchange’s quarterly journal, which explores the implications of the growing role of environmental policy. As environmental questions are increasingly felt in other areas, from economics, to security, to foreign affairs, we look at what these overlaps will mean. Our contributors are world leaders, distinguished thinkers and experts in their fields, drawn from the UK and around the world.

Place Matters
Samuel HughesPlace matters profoundly to people. We invest more resources in our homes than in anything else, and by some measures we spend more time gardening than we do on any other pastime. This is no less true of our shared home. Protecting the countryside from suburban sprawl has substantial costs in terms of foregone economic growth, but green belts are widely supported, and were introduced only after a huge grassroots campaign for them.

Immigration, Strasbourg, and Judicial Overreach
John Finnis and Simon MurrayThis paper traces the history of several judicially demanded or created obstacles to preventing unlawful entry or removing illegal migrants. The decisions to create these obstacles, it argues, were well-motivated but unauthorised and even unprincipled. This is a story in which European courts and our own courts all have a part.

Protecting local heritage
Zewditu GebreyohanesSince the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, a number of councils across England and Wales have stated their commitment to reviewing local street names and—where these are deemed to have a contentious history—to considering renaming them. In several instances, the decision-making process with regards street name alteration has excluded residents and locals, in spite of the immense direct impact street renaming has on a street’s residents.

How to Address the Breakdown of Trust Between Government and Courts
Sir Stephen LawsThe Independent Review of Administrative Law has been established because of a breakdown of trust between the political institutions of the constitution, namely Parliament and Her Majesty’s Government, on the hand, and the judiciary on the other. This is a serious situation that must be addressed.

Post-Brexit freedoms and opportunities for the UK
Stephen BoothThis paper draws together analysis from the range of Policy Exchange’s experts – in Law & Constitution, Trade & Economics, Immigration & Policing, Energy & Environment, Health & Social Care – of the new freedoms and opportunities open to the United Kingdom under the terms of the new relationship with the European Union.

Capital Shift
Benedict McAleenan and Ben CaldecottIn 2021, the UK will host the G7 and COP26 and take a key part in other major summits, giving it a unique opportunity to lead the global diplomatic agenda. This report argues that he UK should use its position to drive a programme of green finance reforms that will enable a fundamental shift to a sustainable global economy.

What is to be done with the British economy?
Warwick LightfootThe UK needs a modern economic policy that is tailored to the opportunities and constraints of the contemporary international economy. In response to the economic shock of the Covid public health crisis and a decade of slow growth and economic stagnation it needs a confident and audacious policy of macro-economic management and supply-side reform.

‘The Racial Consequences of Mr Churchill’: A Review
Andrew Roberts and Zewditu GebreyohanesOn 11 February 2021, Churchill College, Cambridge – in collaboration with the Churchill Archive Centre, which is part of the College – hosted the second event in its year-long series ‘Churchill, Race and Empire’. It featured a panel discussion entitled ‘The Racial Consequences of Churchill’, during which a series of factually incorrect and profoundly offensive remarks were made by the three panellists – Dr Onyeka Nubia (Nottingham University), Dr Madhusree Mukerjee and Professor Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City University) – and also by the Chair, Professor Priyamvada Gopal (Churchill College, Cambridge), about Sir Winston Churchill and concerning several major historical events.

Strong Suburbs
Samuel Hughes and Ben SouthwoodBritain needs more housing. But, so often, local residents justifiably believe that new housing in their area means a loss of public goods and amenities for them. This has led to a zero sum struggle where the debate is over who ought to be a winner and who ought to be a loser. Policy Exchange’s new paper Strong Suburbs cuts through that false dichotomy, providing a mechanism for local residents to benefit from, and control, new development.