Full Breakdown
High Pay Centre Shuts Down After Aberdeen Group Cuts Funding
7/10/2026, 10:23:05 PM
Sudden Closure of the Think Tank
Commentators note that the independent research organisation the High Pay Centre (HPC) announced its permanent shutdown this week. Founded in 2011 by former Guardian business editor Deborah Hargreaves, the HPC specialised in “predistribution” analysis of executive remuneration and the widening pay gap in the UK. Its final report for 2026 showed the median FTSE 100 chief executive earned £4.4 million annually, reaching that amount in less than two and a half days of work compared with a median employee’s full-year wage.
Funding Collapse and Aberdeen Group’s Role
The closure follows a decisive move by Aberdeen Group, a wealth-management firm, which last year terminated its Financial Fairness Trust. The trust, created in 2016 with a £90 million windfall from the demutualisation of Standard Life and chaired by the late former Chancellor Alistair Darling, had been the primary funder of the HPC and a network of similar research bodies. Aberdeen redirected its charitable giving toward “community nature” projects, leaving the HPC without the financial support needed to continue its work.
Wider Impact on Research and Policy
The loss removes a key source of data on corporate pay structures in the UK, a country the centre identified as having the second-most unequal income distribution among wealthy nations, behind only the United States. Beneficiary organisations such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Resolution Foundation, the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, the Child Poverty Action Group, the New Economics Foundation and consumer group Which? have reported being “left reeling.” Analysts warn that the absence of rigorous, publicly funded scrutiny could hinder debates on board-room diversity, co-determination models common in 13 EU states and Norway, and the broader push for living-wage policies.
Criticism and Opposition
Veteran commentator Polly Toynbee attributes the defunding to a growing corporate backlash imported from the United States, where firms like Meta and Walmart have dismantled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. She argues that UK companies, fearing loss of US business, are quietly erasing Environmental, Social and Governance frameworks from annual reports, signalling a broader retreat from systemic inequality research.
Conflicting Reports and Gaps
Sources differ on the precise amount of the Financial Fairness Trust’s original endowment and on whether Aberdeen provided any alternative funding for the affected research ecosystem. No official statement from Aberdeen detailing its rationale has been released, leaving a gap in public understanding of the decision’s motivations.
