The Social Market Foundation (SMF) is an independent

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

political public policy

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based in

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. It is one of the 'Top 12 Think Tanks in Britain' and was named 'UK Think Tank of the Year' by Prospect in 2012. Its purpose is to "advance the education of the public in the economic, social and political sciences" and to "champion ideas that marry a pro-market orientation with concern for social justice". Policy ideas are based on the concept of the

social market economy The social market economy (SOME; german: soziale Marktwirtschaft), also called Rhine capitalism, Rhine-Alpine capitalism, the Rhenish model, and social capitalism, is a socioeconomic model combining a free-market capitalist economic system alon ...

History

Founded in 1989, the organisation was cited as "

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...

's favourite thinktank" and two former directors, Rick Nye and

Daniel Finkelstein Daniel William Finkelstein, Baron Finkelstein, (born 30 August 1962) is a British journalist and politician. He is a former executive editor of ''The Times'' and remains a weekly political columnist. He is a former chairman of Policy Exchange ...

, left to work for the

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. In the 1990s it moved closer to

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

, with

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

giving a speech about 'social markets' at the Foundation in 2003, and SMF publishing a paper by Gordon Brown in 2004. In 2001, Robert, Lord Skidelsky was replaced as chair by David, Lord Lipsey. It was associated with some of the policies of New Labour, particularly issues of public service reform. In September 2010

Mary Ann Sieghart Mary Ann Corinna Howard Sieghart (born 6 August 1961) is an England, English author, journalist, radio presenter and former assistant editor of ''The Times'', where she wrote columns about politics, social affairs and life in general. She has al ...

, the political and social affairs journalist, took over as Chair.

Policy goals

The SMF’s remit is to focus on domestic public policy, particularly the public services and welfare. The majority of publications are therefore focused on issues concerning education, health care and employment. However it also produces publications on wide-ranging subjects such as road-pricing,

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s and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

policy. The SMF has a 20 member Policy Advisory Board, which as of 2018 included the

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) Stephen Kinnock,

Norman Lamb Sir Norman Peter Lamb (born 16 September 1957) is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019, and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee ...

Chris Leslie Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he defected to form ...

Alison McGovern Alison McGovern (born 30 December 1980) is a British politician who has served as Shadow Minister for Employment since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wirral South since 2010. Early life The gran ...

Tom Tugendhat Thomas Georg John Tugendhat, (born 27 June 1973) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Minister of State for Security since September 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commi ...

Chuka Umunna Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (UK), Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham (UK Parliament constituency), Streatham from 2010 United Kingdom general election, ...

and John Woodcock.

Funding

In November 2022, the funding transparency website

Who Funds You? Who Funds You? is a project that rates and promotes transparency of funding sources of think tanks. The project scored think tanks according to four criteria, namely whether the organisation discloses its income, whether it publishes financial de ...

gave The Social Market Foundation a B grade (rating goes from A to E).

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom Political and economic research foundations Think tanks based in the United Kingdom

History

Policy goals

Funding

See also

References

External links