About us

IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, is the UK’s leading progressive thinktank.

We are an independent charitable organisation with more than 40 staff members, paid interns and visiting fellows. Our main office is in London, with IPPR North, IPPR’s dedicated thinktank for the North of England, operating out of offices in Newcastle and Manchester.

The purpose of our work is to assist all those who want to create a society where every citizen lives a decent and fulfilled life, in reciprocal relationships with the people they care about. We believe that a society of this sort cannot be legislated for or guaranteed by the state. And it certainly won’t be achieved by markets alone. It requires people to act together and take responsibility for themselves and each other. It involves an ongoing struggle to address unjustified inequalities, to construct an economy which serves society, to challenge concentrations of power, to maintain a vibrant national and local democracy, to be open to the world and to protect our natural environment.

IPPR’s work covers the full range of local and national policy debates, and our international partnerships extend IPPR’s influence and reputation across the world. Our current policy work is focused around these three priority areas:

• Combining fiscal realism with a plan for deep reform of British capitalism
  There are significant long-term pressures on the UK’s public finances which require priorities to be set for spending, new sources of revenue to be found, and new fiscal rules. Allied to these tasks must be a strategy for shifting the structure and character of British capitalism that learns the lessons of the financial crisis, overcomes longstanding economic weaknesses, reforms core consumer markets and provides the basis for full employment and rising living standards.
• Developing relational public services and a more democratic statecraft
  Over-reliance on targets and markets to improve public services has become exhausted, along with trust in government. A new model of reform should be more relational, local and democratic, while not conceding on quality or value of money. Across a range of service areas, this requires a balance to be struck between a strategic state, democratic institutions, autonomous but accountable providers, world-class workforces, a vibrant civil society and empowered citizens.
• Shaping a post-crash social politics
  The narrative of ‘Broken Britain’ and the ‘Big Society’ has itself broken down. We need an alternative account of the pressures and potential in British society today, rooted in everyday lives and experiences. This can inform a new partnership between government, society and citizens on issues ranging from family life, financial pressures, social security, good neighbourhoods and personal relationships and wellbeing.

IPPR publishes more than 60 reports each year and stages a similar number of events with high profile politicians and leading thinkers. Our website is one of the most visited of all British think tanks and we lead our sector in the use of social media.

Read Our work 2011/2012 for a brief introduction to IPPR as an organisation and a summary of our work in many areas of policy.