The Post-War Problems Central Committee was the initiative of RA Butler, then Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who proposed the following resolution at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Union on 14th May, 1941:

'That with the object of collating and presenting to the Prime Minister the views of the Conservative and Unionist Party on Post-War problems, the Chairman of this Committee should be requested to confer with the Chairman of the Central Council, the Chairman of the Party, the Chief Whip, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee as to the advisability of establishing an ad hoc Committee for that purpose.'

At the next meeting of the Executive Committee, on 9th July, 1941, the resulting report was approved unanimously, and R.A. Butler was given the responsibility of chairing the new Committee. Initially the following Sub-Committees of the PWPCC were set up, with the subjects to be examined as below:

Appointments were made to the various Sub-Committees and they began their work shortly after. Some Sub-Committees were dissolved comparatively early, such as Social Services (April 1943) and Local Government Reform (February 1944) but others did not produce their final reports until 1945-1946. The Central Committee had discretion to establish additional sub-committees as required, and such as were subsequently created included Housing, Forestry, Social Services, Local Government Reform, and Penal Reform. Other matters which were considered by the Central Committee from late 1944 onwards, included Civil Aviation, Hire-Purchase and Deferred Payment Schemes, Nutrition Policy, and Public Libraries. The Consultative Sub-Committee eventually took on the functions of the main Committee. A Scottish Reconstruction Committee was also set up, with which the Central Committee liaised.

As the work of the Post-War Problems Central Committee progressed, reports of the various sub-committees were published under the shared heading Looking Ahead, and the setting up of 'Looking Ahead Circles' was encouraged to discuss and provide feedback on the reports at local level in the absence of active local Conservative associations during the War. For an account of a 'Looking Ahead Circle' at work, see The Onlooker, July 1943, P.7 [Shelfmark: PUB 59].