Nick Pearce

Nick Pearce is professor of public policy and director of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath. 

He is also the author of numerous books and articles on social policy, British political history, and Britain’s place in the world.  

Before joining the University of Bath, Nick was the director of IPPR, where he co-edited the journal Juncture, and between 2008 and 2010, Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit. Nick has also worked as special adviser in the Home Office, Cabinet Office and former department for education and employment. He has served on a number of advisory and review bodies for the UK government.  

Nick is currently a trustee at Foundations and the Higher Education Policy Institute, and Chair of the Living Wage Commission, which oversees the calculation of the ‘real’ living wage rates in the UK. In July 2025, Nick was appointed by the UK government to the Pensions Commission. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institution of British Architects.

More from this author:

  1. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow: Labour, social democracy and the 2020s

    ‘In politics if you don’t intuit the future, it is all too easy to be eaten by your past.’ In order to remain relevant, argue Gavin Kelly and Nick Pearce, those on the political left must not only apprehend the forces that are shaping the…

  2. Editorial: Memory and meaning in Irish politics

    The editorial for edition 22.4 of Juncture looks at the Easter Rising of 1916 and its myriad impacts 100 years later, for both the Republic and the modern United Kingdom.

  3. Could the idea of the Anglosphere tempt voters towards Brexit?

    Michael Kenny and Nick Pearce argue that the Anglosphere idea is politically implausible but ideologically potent.