ENDS at 40: the story so far

1978: A rising star

It was January 1978 when ENDS’ first complement of staff sat down to work at its plush Orchard House office – once the headquarters for the campaign to secure the female vote.

The need for informed analysis of emerging environmental regulation for the business community had been identified a year earlier following a chance meeting of two of the three central figures in ENDS’ creation. Max Nicholson, then in his 70s, was one of the UK’s foremost naturalists. Industrial relations expert David Layton had founded Incomes Data Services (IDS) – on which ENDS based its name – a decade earlier. Both were former civil servants.