Progressive Britain

With the arrival of Andy Burnham, the battle for the political heart of this country is back on – only he can take Reform on and win. That the ex-mayor of Manchester’s story and he’s selling it well. The prime minister-elect has also made it abundantly clear, especially in his speech last week, that he views the rise of populism as just one aspect of a broader and more terrifying collapse in economic and political disengagement if whole swathes of provincial England.

Keir Starmer deserves eternal praise for rescuing the Labour Party from the moral bankruptcy of the Corbyn years, winning a landslide victory less than two years ago, and for winning allies and increasing our international credibility. His stalwart support for Ukraine has helped that country stand up to the Putin dictatorship. In a grave new world such clear-headed leadership is vital to our managing rapid geopolitical change and increased risks from enemies such as Russia.

This blog is based on the foreword to our new paper The Future has 5G Foundations. Britain is searching for growth. We do not need to rehash here the problems which slow growth in both GDP and productivity have presented. How our wage growth trajectory has collapsed since the financial crisis. How a highly leveraged government needs growth to meet the spending needs incurred by a dangerous world and aging population.

Connectivity is the fuel of the future. Do we have enough? To deliver the growth we need politicians agree Britain must lead on new technologies and spread opportunity around the round the country. What government actually does to deliver against both objectives though is complicated and often hard to for it to articulate, particularly in a political case.

The truce declared this week between the US and the Islamic Republic after months of conflict appears likely to reopen the strait of Hormuz for the passage of ships, but little else appears certain. The agreement has put off the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme for further talks; there is no mention of Iran’s ballistic missile programme or its support for proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

As a mother to two primary‑aged children, the negative impact of social media dominates conversations among friends, fellow parents and WhatsApp groups. For too many, it feels as though our children’s childhood is being poisoned. In my local area of Barnet, a campaign was won last year to ensure no smartphones are allowed at all in primary schools, alongside strong advice for no smartphones before 14 and no social media before 16. Barnet is the first borough in the country to set this guidance.

HS2 is a mess. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced this week that it was likely to cost up to £102 billion just to get to Birmingham. It will not be the fastest train in the world either. HS2 will now go at 320 kilometres an hour. Fast for Britain but bog standard for everywhere else. Nor will the train line be open until mid to late 2030s  – and even then it will literally be a shuttle between Old Oak Common in deepest West London and Birmingham.

Progress conference returns for another year. Get the agenda below or download it.

There’s no denying that private renters are feeling the strain of a longstanding affordability squeeze. For the past 15-20 years, rents have taken up a persistently high proportion of renters’ incomes, compared to housing costs for those in other tenures. Renters now spend an average of a third of their incomes on rent – and for those in high-cost areas it’s considerably more.

For too long, talent has been held back by a ‘class ceiling’ which is less transparent and more resilient than many care to admit. It is a ceiling which doesn’t just limit individual ambition; it limits our country’s potential. And nowhere is this more painfully obvious than in the towns and cities across Britain where working class people have spent decades pushing against barriers that should never have been there in the first place.