Last week while the Prime Minister was launching the government’s latest reset at Pinewood Studios, I was in the House of Commons listening to the Cabinet Office minister repeat the same speech. After missions, pillars, and other promises, this was an attempt to set out clear targets but some key issues were missing from the plan.
For example, growth was a topic that the Labour Party spoke about a lot during the general election campaign. So it was somewhat surprising that in its “Plan for Change” the commitment to have the fastest growing economy in the G7 (which happens to have been the case before the election) has been watered down. That may be related to the predictions from the Office of Budget Responsibility which downgraded growth figures after the Budget.
On immigration, there was no target on how much the government would bring it down by. On policing, there was no target on cutting crime – increasing police numbers further is welcome but only a few days later Police and Crime Commissioners are warning they may have to cut numbers as the policing budget isn’t increasing enough to cover costs.
Despite 2.8 million people being on long term sickness benefits the government has not made this a priority as part of this relaunch even though it inherited plans to reduce this number. There was also no reference to the £300 savings on energy bills that the Energy Secretary and Prime Minister promised at the election.
It has been obvious over the last five months that behind the slogan of change there wasn’t a developed plan for government. Poor choices such at taking Winter Fuel Payments from vulnerable pensioners have resulted. And on the NHS, the government has asked people for their ideas – nothing wrong with consulting but it is surprising there were no real plans ready given the scale of challenges it faces.
Ministers have in many way been acting as if they are still in opposition rather than taking responsibility to solve problems now they are in government. Even with these announcements it is far from clear that there are precise metrics and implementation plans to deliver on them.
One area where the government is being ambitious is on house building. We’ll hear more about their associated planning reforms later this week but it is already clear ministers want to take more powers from local councils to deliver on its commitment to 1.5 million more homes over this Parliament. This may involve greater powers to take decisions on bigger housebuilding schemes or other developments. We’ve already seen the government significantly increase housing targets including in our area, while downgrading them in cities including London where demand is highest.
We need more housing but the deal has to be that it is accompanied by infrastructure and additional GPs, dentists, schools and other services. One of the frustrations so far locally is the delay in approving the A10 West Winch Housing Access Road which has always been an integral part of that development.
On Sunday I was on BBC Politics East talking about this announcement and there were interviews with people asking what they thought of the plans. Most were sceptical about the promises and one pointed out that pensioners and farmers had already seen the government break promises. My party suffered at the last election because we failed to deliver on key commitments, including immigration.
Ultimately, people will judge politicians by results and whether they are better off – not on words or pledges.