How to build a decade of national renewal: Five lessons from history

Article

The new government has promised to usher in a decade of national renewal.

Its intention is to speed up growth in living standards and close the wide gaps between regions; to restart the engine of social mobility between and within generations; to make Britain a healthier and safer country, with its health service and police there when they are needed; and to phase out the country’s dependence on carbon.

All this is easier said than done. Most parties that take power fall short of the ambitions they set out with. But this time the stakes are higher. Populists who prey on democratic grievances are circling over an anxious and insecure nation. The world is watching. In a year where half of the global population casts a vote, the UK may be the only country where a progressive party won a landslide.

Very few governments succeed in changing the future. This report, the first from the IPPR Decade of National Renewal Programme, asks why some end up transforming the country, and why others fail to do so.

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