The firm said the team has been formed in response to growing demand among policymakers for expertise in behaviour change.

Broom is a former director of corporate affairs at MyTravel Group and worked as an advisor to former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo from 1991-97.

More recently she completed an MSc in health psychology at University College London, focusing particularly on behaviour change.

Michael Simmonds, founder and managing director of Populus, said: “Behaviour change studies that provide evidence-based recommendations are quickly becoming an essential source for policy and communications strategy development. This is a natural extension of our social, political and stakeholder research.”

Broom said that pressure on budgets, and the public’s growing desire for a new kind of relationship with government, had “brought behaviour change technicues to the forefront of the agenda in both local and central government”.