Turning 25: Expanding Ideas, Impact & Horizons

Celebrating 25 years of growth, fresh ideas and the policies shaping what comes next

To mark our 25th year, we answered three big questions for the future

This summer, we hosted Frontier’s BIG25: an event series exploring some of the biggest questions facing today’s economy.

Each event featured a keynote speech from one of the UK’s leading economic thinkers:

Is growth the right objective? Amid challenges to the conventional wisdom of pursuing GDP growth, Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, put forward the case in favour.

AI: inflated myth or a miracle cure? Dame Sharon White, Chair of Frontier, made the case for AI as a driver of change, with the potential to reshape industries and revitalise public services. But she also warned that governments and regulators must adapt quickly.

Identity crisis: what’s next for regulation? Sir Alex Chisholm, Chair of EDF Energy and former head of the CMA, urged policymakers to move beyond outdated ideals of competition, arguing for a more efficient, better coordinated and less costly regulatory system.

You can watch all three speeches below, and explore further insights from Frontier’s economists, including the thoughts of our Strategy team on the CMA’s new consumer enforcement powers.

Frontier’s BIG25: Paul Johnson’s keynote speech on growth

Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, opened Frontier’s BIG25 series with a keynote speech on a contested subject: is growth the right objective?

AI is the fifth industrial revolution, arguably more profound than TV, more profound than the internet, forcing a fundamental rethinking of the industry's practices.

Sharon White

Chair of Frontier Economics

In this stricter environment, businesses should be ready to demonstrate, with evidence, how their practices affect consumer behaviour. Unlike legal compliance, economic analysis focuses on the real-world effects of those practices

Tara Chapman

Manager, Strategy

Integrated offshore hydrogen infrastructure has the potential to deliver substantial benefits by 2050, including €5–11 billion in annual cost savings across Europe compared to stand-alone electricity connections.

Matthias Janssen

Associate Director, Energy

85%

of participating businesses said the Create Growth Programme (CGP) boosted their confidence in their growth potential.

1.5m

safe and decent homes is a specific milestone set under the ‘economic growth’ mission — one of several ambitious targets set to track mission progress.

$4.5trillion

in annual global clean energy investment is needed by the early 2030s, up from $1.8 trillion in 2023, according to the IEA.