His team oversees HM Treasury’s spending control of local government settlements and has policy responsibility for HMT’s relationship with the sector. After starting his career in Bangladesh, Tom joined HMT in 2009, firstly in financial services policy and banking reform, before moving to defence and security spending in 2014 where he led the 2015 Spending Review of the Ministry of Defence.

In 2017, he joined  the MOD, first in Nuclear Strategy and then leading the central Strategic Finance where he oversaw the 2019 Spending Review. After seven years on defence spending issues he returned to HMT in August 2020. He is a chartered management accountant (FCMA, CGMA)