Publication Education and skills Growth and productivity Health and Care Machinery of government Social security 5 September, 2022

10 Graphs for the new PM

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In just three days, Britain will have a new Prime Minister. They will take over during one of the most challenging periods in modern history.

Top of their domestic inbox will be the cost of living crisis, an economy on the brink of recession, threats of Winter blackouts, and public service backlogs that are impacting everything from the delivery of justice to the treatment of cancer. These will rightly demand the PM’s urgent attention.

But rather than viewing these challenges as short-term issues requiring temporary action, the new Government should take this opportunity to fix the fundamentals that have left Britain so vulnerable to crises. That means building a more resilient state by addressing embedded structural failings. Because while the problems facing the country can in part be explained by the knock-on impacts of the pandemic and geopolitical upheaval, they are also the product of wider flaws in the operation of the State.

Decades of short-termism have left us ill-equipped to deal with crises. To illustrate this, we set out ten graphs that should be compulsory viewing for the new PM. They show the need for long-term, structural reform.

Alongside putting in place urgently needed support for struggling families, the PM should task their new Cabinet to:

  • Fix Britain’s crumbling national infrastructure
  • Definitively grasp the health and social care crisis
  • Build a workforce fit for the modern labour market