Partner and Head of Health and Life Sciences at 5654 Matthew Neal examines the shifting investment landscape, from geopolitics and protectionism to capital markets and M&A, and what this means for the companies navigating it.

5654 Senior Adviser Sir Jonathan Van-Tam explores what NHS transformation is likely to look like, why progress will take time and how organisations can align with the priorities shaping the health service’s future.

Partners Sally Payne, Robert Nisbet and Head of Digital Daniel Rice explore how companies can campaign more effectively in 2026, using human storytelling, digital-first formats and integrated multi-channel strategies.

Head of Built Environment Cameron Scott explores why thinking seriously about local relationships - and how businesses engage local political leadership - is now a core component of any effective public affairs strategy.

5654 Founding Partner James Starkie explores dynamics on the right, and why businesses should be paying close attention.

Simon Jackson, Partner at 5654, looks at Labour’s slide in the polls and the pressure building inside the Parliamentary party.

Merlin Strategies Founder Scarlett Maguire looks at the polling trends beneath the headlines, and why disruption is likely to persist into 2026.

Partner Liz Morley assesses whether 2026 could mark a genuine turning point for the UK economy, and what would need to change for confidence to return.

In the first of our New Year's series on what to expect in 2026 , Founder and CEO Ben Thornton explains why corporate affairs has never mattered more.
 

The ‘2026 and Beyond: Boosting UK Life Sciences’ Investment Breakfast was hosted on the 4th of December 2025 by 5654 & Company, in collaboration with Bird & Bird, Citi, Negotient, and Peel Hunt.

5654 & Company has appointed Simon Baugh, former Chief Executive of Government Communications, and Jonathan Gullis, former Conservative MP and Education Minister who recently joined Reform UK, as Senior Advisers, significantly expanding the firm’s corporate communications and public affairs capability.

New polling from 5654 & Company reveals how the public judges businesses after a cyber-attack and how companies must act to maintain support.

Ultimately there are many reasons why Mamdani’s campaign was successful: message discipline, a strong ground game and a clear contrast to his opponents, but one of the most successful elements of his campaign, and one of the most effective routes into the electorate, was how his campaign harnessed social media - not just as a broadcasting tool, but as a movement-building platform.

Cyber-attacks are increasing in scale and sophistication and for business leaders, it’s not a case of if, but when. Our latest article looks at why cyber preparedness is top of board agendas today.

Associate Director Charlotte Dawson attended this year’s TechBio UK Conference, where the conversation wasn’t about “what if”, it was about results.

Over a year on from the 2024 General Election, 5654’s latest research looks at how the public’s views have changed since, how these views are shaping a multi-party world, and where they matter to businesses.

The Chancellor wants to change the narrative to get Britain growing. According to last week’s Mansion House speech and the raft of documents from the Treasury that we have seen in the past week. She wants us all to take more risks. Rather than discussing risks, let’s focus on opportunities.

5654 & Company’s sixth annual Hope Index – which studies how hopeful the UK public feel about their lives, their community and the country and was launched today – reveals the divide between “the hopeful” and “the pessimists” within the UK public, and how this has begun to emerge along party political lines in the last year.

Over the last five years we have been tracking levels of hope across the UK. We believe this is an important topic to study because it helps us understand how the underlying mood of the public is changing over time. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, we have seen the nation’s mood swing from hopeful to uncertain as we’ve lived though the arrival and ending of the pandemic, a rolling cost-of-living crisis and multiple Prime Ministers and Governments struggling to seize the agenda and lead. 

Next Wednesday, the Chancellor will stand to announce the outcome of the Government’s Spending Review. The results of fraught closed door negotiations of recent weeks, between the Treasury Spending team and Whitehall departments, will become clear.