Simon Less, Policy Exchange's Senior Consultant on Regulatory Policy, in a joint piece with Regina Finn, Chief Executive of Ofwat, discusses the range of ways sectoral regulators suffer capture.  In particular, the article warns about a trend towards political ‘capture’ of, or undue influence over, independent sectoral regulators that appears to forget the reasons why the Thatcher government made sectoral regulators statutorily independent.

Max Chambers, Head of Crime & Justice at Policy Exchange, argues that, despite a rocky start, Police and Crime Commissioners have made genuine progress in the six months they have been in position. He notes that there is emerging evidence of real change starting to happen behind the scenes, including a dramatic swing in the power relationship from central government to the local level.

Nick Faith, Director of Communications at Policy Exchange, sets out the Catch 22 situation that UKIP has put the Conservatives in. UKIP is likely to prevent the Conservatives from winning some key marginals, but tacking to the right to try and head this off in the North West and Midlands will harm the party in the South West. Nick argues that David Cameron's best response would simply be to forget the electoral connotations and focus on leading the country instead.

Matthew Oakley, Head of Economics & Social Policy at Policy Exchange, argues that welfare reforms to date should mark the start of what should be a decade of welfare reform, with future reforms focusing on individual responsibilities and on improving state support.

Max Chambers, Head of Crime & Justice at Policy Exchange, argues that the police could save money and offer a better service to the public by closing out of date police stations and introducing technologically-enabled 'TARDIS' police boxes where the public could report crime, a recommendation made in recent Policy Exchange report Rebooting the PC.

Simon Moore, Environment & Energy Research Fellow, argues in response to a report by the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on the impact of shale gas on energy markets, saying that while the report offers a largely sensible overview, the government's Electricity Market Reform (EMR) policy is vulnerable to mistakes in gas price projections, as outlined in Policy Exchange report Gas Works.

James Barty, Policy Exchange's Senior Consultant for Financial Policy, sets out why the Funding for Lending Scheme is not working, making the argument from his report Capital Requirements that high capital requirements are preventing banks from lending to small businesses. James says the Bank of England must promote credit growth and revert to buying corporate debt directly from the banks.

Sean Worth, Head of Policy Exchange's Better Public Services Project, argues that trade unions are blocking public service reform and says plans by the TUC to carry out a general strike will endanger the public. Sean sets out recommendations from Policy Exchange report Better Public Services which says emergency services strikes should be banned to prevent the most vulnerable people being hit hardest.

Alex Morton, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing, Planning & Urban Policy, sets out ways the government can tackle the UK's housing crisis, including reforming the planning system and ensuring councils who fail to meet their own housing targets release land to local people who want to build their own home.