Policy Live: what would it take to reach a brighter future?

Panellists had ideas and advice for the Government on how to tackle core challenges. 

• Growth was recognised as the central, and most difficult, challenge for this government.  The now Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt urged attendees to “not lose hope” on becoming a high-growth economy - noting that others were also mired in the low-growth trap. He highlighted what he felt were the key areas of focus for the new Government: welfare reform, increasing public sector productivity and attracting and retaining international investment. 
• Just get building. The need to build more houses, and radically reduce housing costs, came up as critical in sessions as diverse as discussions on reducing child poverty, through to conversations on increasing growth while decreasing inequality., In the session on how the government can achieve its housing goals, design practice Create Streets had a key message: density matters, and plan your transport first. 
• There are no easy choices on tax and spend - the Chancellor needs to make some tough calls. In our panel chaired by Helen Miller of the IFS the experts debated what choices the Chancellor should make but they all agreed that she will need to make some difficult decisions on spending. Expectations are already being set for higher taxes and higher borrowing or lower spending in this coming Budget - or maybe a combination of all three. 
• While all eyes are on the NHS, no quick fixes please. Policy Live fell on the same day as the Darzi review was released, crystallising for our health panellists the extent of the problems facing the NHS. As the Health Foundation’s Jennifer Dixon said, with the NHS the situation now not “invest or die”, but rather “reform or die”. The government needs to go about this in a sensible, measured way - focussing on the environments outside hospitals as much as inside. Policy Live highlighted that there are many smart policy proposals that could go some way towards helping the government achieving its health mission, such as Nesta’s Blueprint for Halving Obesity, introduced on the day, it gives policymakers a toolkit of evidence-based policies to tackle the obesity crisis head on. 
• Fail to mobilise citizens in your big policy decisions at your peril. The transition to net zero, the changing world of work, reform of the NHS: all require the government to make trade-offs and citizens to understand them. Throughout the day panellists highlighted and emphasised the importance of involving the public. A demonstration of the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design’s new public deliberation tool - The Situation Room - helped crystallise how Government, and local authorities, can do just that. 
• There’s a real opportunity in the shift to mission-driven government - if it is done right. Many speakers told us of the different ways that shifting to a mission-driven approach could institutionalise new approaches to lock in progress. David Miliband closed Policy Live with his reflections on what being mission-driven could achieve for the new government. He emphasised that the missions are not just missions for government, but missions for the country. For him, the key to the mission’s success will be if the Government can build coalitions around them.