New Economics Foundation

Founded in 1986 by organisers of The Other Economic Summit, the New Economics Foundation is a London-based registered charity (number 1055254) describing itself as working to build a new economy that operates within environmental limits. It is widely characterised as a progressive, left-leaning think tank, known for the Happy Planet Index and advocacy work spanning wellbeing economics, sustainable finance, local regeneration and climate economics.

Writing on 17 August 2026, it argued the UK's fiscal accounting rule, Public Sector Net Financial Liabilities, caps what state investment vehicles can do: to match Germany's KfW and France's Bpifrance, each investing around 1% of GDP a year, the National Wealth Fund would need to invest roughly £21 billion a year by 2028-29, nearly four times its current annual cap.

NEF's contribution to the UK startups and innovation debate is fiscal: it argues Britain's state investment institutions are structurally undersized against European peers, a position pitched directly against the free-market critique offered by think tanks such as The Entrepreneurs Network.