Prof Brian BellAcademic

Biography

Professor Brian Bell is a labour economist who, from March 2026, serves as Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury and Head of the Government Economic Service, having previously been Professor of Economics and Head of the Economics Department at King's Business School, King's College London. He served as Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) — the independent non-departmental public body that advises the Home Secretary on immigration policy — from July 2020 to early 2026, having been a MAC member since February 2018. In that capacity he led a landmark 2022 independent review of adult social care, concluding that persistent underfunding was the central driver of workforce problems in the sector, and publicly argued that migrant workers remain crucial to the NHS and social care and that a 'crisis in the NHS workforce' would result from substantially reducing foreign recruitment of nurses and doctors. Before his academic career he held positions at the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, and as an economist and proprietary trader at hedge funds and investment banks in London. He is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE and a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation.

References

1. 1.Professor Brian Bell – GOV.UK — Confirms role as MAC Chair, King's Business School affiliation, MAC membership since February 2018, reappointment for second term until August 2026, and prior roles at Bank of England and IMF.
2. 2.Professor Brian Bell appointed as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK Treasury | King's College London — Confirms appointment from March 2026 as Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury and Head of the Government Economic Service.
3. 3.Brian Bell | King's College London — Confirms role as Professor of Economics and Head of Department, Economics at King's Business School, and prior career at Oxford and LSE.
4. 4.Professor Brian Bell reappointed as Chair of the MAC – GOV.UK — Confirms reappointment as MAC Chair from September 2023 for a further three-year term.
5. 5.Net migration is a distraction from other government failures, says top adviser – New Statesman

Expertise

Cited on

• Adult social care & reform

Stated areas of expertise

• Health and social care workforce migration
• NHS workforce policy
• Immigration and labour market economics
• Wages and inequality
• Shortage Occupation List policy
• Economics of crime

Notable achievements

• Led the MAC's 2022 independent review of adult social care, producing 19 recommendations including an immediate minimum pay rate of £10.50/hr for adult social care workers in England, and recommending addition of care workers to the Health and Care Worker visa route — a recommendation the government accepted and implemented in February 2022. Source ↗
• Reappointed as MAC Chair for a second three-year term from September 2023 by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, following original appointment in July 2020. Source ↗
• Appointed Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury and Head of the Government Economic Service from March 2026. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “All politicians said that was a good idea, but that gave us 200,000 migration in one year, and additionally, some Hong Kong citizens because of the crackdown from the Chinese authorities.”

  Chair of the independent Migration Advisory Committee · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · Net migration is plummeting. Why can’t Labour say so? | Heather Stewart ↗

• “They may not say it explicitly, but I think they basically believe that care workers should be paid less than people who stack shelves for Aldi – because that's what their policy is... We're not doing anything on the wages front, and until we do that, then we are accepting that exploitation as part of the way that we're going to pay for social care: and that just seems appalling.”

  Professor of economics at King's College London, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · Reeves appoints higher pay advocate to fight skills shortages as chief economic adviser ↗

Source references

1. Net migration is plummeting. Why can’t Labour say so? | Heather Stewarttheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. Reeves appoints higher pay advocate to fight skills shortages as chief economic advisertheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/brian-bell
• Staff pagehttps://www.gov.uk/government/people/brian-bell
• Websitehttps://sites.google.com/site/brianbellkcl/

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