Centre for Policy Studies

The Centre for Policy Studies was established by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph in 1974 as an independent centre-right think tank with a remit to develop and publish public policy proposals and arrange seminars and lectures on topical policy issues, with a view to influencing policy world-wide. It became a limited company on 20 June 1974 with Sir Keith Joseph, Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Vinson as directors, employing paid staff and advisors and based at 8 Wilfred Street, London. According to its mission statement, the core principles upon which the Centre bases its policy proposals include the value of free markets, the importance of individual choice and responsibility, and the concepts of duty, family, respect for the law, national independence, individualism, and liberty. The Centre has concerned itself particularly with such issues as the National Health Service, the privatisation of industry, the economy, and defence. Amongst the policies it claims to have helped to initiate are privatisation, trade union reform, council house sales, pensions deregulation, education reform, free trade, health service reform, and the restructuring of the tax system in favour of 'traditional' families. CPS advisors also produce speeches and articles for politicians and maintain close, though informal, links with the government, politicians, policy makers, civil servants and the press, in Britain and abroad.