About
About The Future Governance Forum
The Future Governance Forum (FGF) is a progressive, non-partisan think tank focused on reforming the state with the ultimate goal of renewing the nation. We make politically credible recommendations for reforms that can be delivered nationally and locally, build strong networks to test new ideas, and collaborate and use our relationships with public, private and social sector leaders to innovate.
Our current programmes of work explore:
In Power: how can we reimagine government to make it fit for the multi-dimensional challenges of the mid-21st Century?
Mission Critical: how can we translate mission-driven government from ambition into action?
Impactful Devolution: how can we meaningfully and permanently devolve power to regional and local levels in one of the most centralised countries in the world?
Rebuilding the Nation: how can we utilise innovative models of public and private investment to spur growth and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure?
Institutional Renewal: how can we reform existing state institutions, and establish new ones, so they are fit for purpose and built to last?
By prioritising these questions we are thinking about new progressive models of governance for the long term. Our working model is to convene experts and find ways in which we can bring perspectives from very different organisations together to suggest ways in which the ‘how’ of government could be more effective at every level.
About the author
Phil Tinline
FGF Policy Associate
Phil is the author of The Death of Consensus (Times Politics Book of the Year, 2022), which explores how political settlements break down and are painfully recreated, and Ghosts of Iron Mountain, about how American conspiracy theories express fears of state power. From 2002 to 2023 he worked for BBC Radio, producing and presenting documentaries about political history and how it shapes the present. His journalism has appeared in various outlets, including the Financial Times, the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the New World, Prospect and the New Statesman.
Acknowledgements
I would like to offer my thanks to Nathan Yeowell and Adam Terry for asking me to write this, to members of FGF’s Board and Policy Advisory Group for a range of wise advice, to Steve Akehurst and to the team at Dynata for their polling expertise, and to Joe Derrett and the brilliant team at FGF for their work in creating this excellent finished article from my Word document, and shepherding it out safely into the world.
This report is based in significant part on over 50 interviews, conducted between May and November 2025, with MPs, civil servants past and present, and people working in think tanks, journalism, business, and the trade unions, charity and social enterprise sectors. In most cases, these interviews were conducted off the record in the interests of candour. This means that the few points where I refer to or quote a specific person are only a small fraction of the contribution these conversations made to my overall work. I would very much like to thank everyone I spoke to for being so generous with their time, insights and experiences, from which I learned a great deal, and which I hope are fairly reflected in the end result. Needless to say, any errors are mine alone.