The Resolution Foundation (RF) is a centre-left economic think-tank based at 2 Queen Anne's Gate in London, opposite the pub where Treasury officials mingle post-budget. Founded in 2005 by Sir Clive Cowdery, it has become arguably Britain's most influential economic institution. What began as a think-tank aimed at helping the poor has, as of 2025, ended up running the country.
The Foundation's budget remains under £4m ($5.4m). Its patient, no-strings funding from Sir Clive Cowdery is a rarity in the British think-tank sector, where others must sell commissioned research. Sir Clive left school with no A-levels before making pots of cash in insurance; he put some of that money towards an organisation dedicated to helping those from similar circumstances.
David Willetts, a former Conservative cabinet minister, is RF's long-standing president, giving the organisation a bipartisan veneer. The think-tank has always played down the idea that increasing living standards for the less-well-off is inherently left-wing.
A remarkable number of Labour government figures are RF alumni. Torsten Bell, the boyish pensions minister, spent nine years as RF's chief executive. Dan Tomlinson, a former RF economist, is a Treasury minister. Vidhya Alakeson, formerly RF's deputy chief executive, is the deputy chief of staff in Downing Street. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister and another former RF researcher, oversees Labour's planning reforms. Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, was co-chair of RF's The Economy 2030 Inquiry and is now Downing Street's economic adviser. Richard Hughes, the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, is a former RF research associate.
In 2015 George Osborne, a Conservative chancellor, cited RF as he set about raising the minimum wage to 60% of the median wage -- a long-standing RF aim. During the covid-19 pandemic, RF's plan for "retention pay" was adopted almost wholesale by Boris Johnson's government in the form of its furlough scheme. The Labour government has also adopted RF-approved schemes, such as levying inheritance tax on pension pots.
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.