In a significant speech yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled new commitments aimed at enhancing living standards and reducing NHS waiting times.
The Prime Minister outlined his "plan for change," which features six key targets: boosting the economy, increasing housebuilding, improving the health service, strengthening policing, and enhancing pre-school education. He emphasised that these goals would empower the British public to hold the government accountable.
The targets are:
• Raising living standards in every part of the UK - aim to deliver highest sustained growth in the G7
• Rebuilding Britain - build 1.5m homes in England and fast track planning decisions on at least 150 major infrastructure projects
• Ending hospital backlogs - 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 months
• Putting police back on the beat - with 13,000 additional officers and a named police officer for every neighbourhood
• Giving children the best start in life - getting 75% of five-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school
• Securing home grown energy - putting the UK on track to at least 95% clean power by 2030.
He described the plan as "ambitious," acknowledging that achieving the targets over the next five years would be "an almighty challenge." However, the Conservatives criticized Sir Keir for not setting a "concrete" target on immigration and accused him of diluting a previous commitment to decarbonise the electricity grid.
In his speech, Sir Keir admitted that "trade-offs" and "difficult decisions" would be necessary to reach his goals. He emphasised that without clear priorities, "you don't get anything delivered." Criticising the civil service, the PM remarked that "too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline."
You can read the speech in full here
Image credit: HM Government
