Reenergising the UK: reversing the downward spiral by turning liabilities into assets

As Polly Mackenzie argues in It’s the Despair That’s Going to Kill Us, politics badly needs to cheer up. But cheering up requires something to look forward to, and that will take more than the political slogans we’re hearing today. It demands direction: a shared view of where we can get to, what stands in the way, and the choices needed to get there.

That direction is missing from our politics. Populists offer nostalgia and fantasy, but Labour’s vision is hazy. Its analysis does capture the real problems facing our tired, old nation, but its policies are too timid to solve them. As Danny Finkelstein put it, Labour’s message is: “Britain is completely broken, let’s do nothing about it.” Starmer’s tone feels weary – less sunlit uplands, more rain-sodden walks with a rich tea biscuit at the end.

It’s easy to see why Labour has taken this path. Our economy is spluttering, debt is unsustainable, and too many institutions no longer work. In response, the government has chosen realism and incrementalism, concluding that nobody would find big promises believable. However, the result is a pace of change that can’t keep up with the counterforces. We are strolling up a down escalator.

Here’s what we could aim for instead: a reenergised country - stronger, fairer and more confident – creating exciting opportunities in an insecure world. A nation that designs and makes what it and others need; that creates high-value jobs and cohesive communities; underpinned by homes, infrastructure and social fabric that enable people to live well and contribute.

Getting to such a future means addressing our systemic challenges and creating new value by turning liabilities into assets. All of this involves real trade-offs, and ducking them is why we’re stuck.

We must address our worsening dependency ratio. Too few people are working to support too many who are not – making us all poorer. As well as getting more young people economically active, we need to turn our ageing population into an asset rather than a cost. That means reforming pensions around ability rather than age to end the practice of paying millions of healthy older people not to work. Reintroducing freedom of movement with the EU would improve our dependency ratio too, but alone won’t solve the problem, as Europe is also ageing.

Second, we have a serious mismatch between economic output and the cost of living, because we are relying on a narrow service economy, aren’t making the right stuff, and it’s too expensive to do so. Through serious investment in skills, public stakes in strategic innovation, and a universal basic income to cut business costs, we can begin to turn the tanker. However, energy prices will remain a major problem, with industry hampered by an attempt to simultaneously foster energy-intensive businesses and fund an expensive grid upgrade. Instead of turning the UK’s natural wind power into a liability by trying to make the grid intermittent-energy-friendly, let’s make it into an asset by using it to create clean energy products such as low-carbon fuels — products that can be sold for export and bring down users’ emissions.

Third, infrastructure and housing shortages, caused by decades of underinvestment, are choking growth – narrowing options and pushing up costs. Planning reform to silence the NIMBYs is vital but insufficient. We must leverage private capital and accept the long-term price. The state can zone land for development, creating new assets for investors rather than windfalls for existing landowners, enabling the funding of the homes, industrial sites and transport links we all need.

Fourth, our social fabric is fraying. The state cannot replace what was once local and human. We must rebuild community capacity, enable volunteering and social enterprise, and stop outsourcing society to impersonal bureaucracy. And if older people work rather than retire, they can help fund and energise this renewal.

Fifth, we must accept that global instability is the new normal. The challenge isn’t to fix it, but to find a strong niche within it while building a foundation of resilience. Rejoining the EU, or taking substantial steps towards that, would be a big help, as would working with our European partners to create mutually beneficial economic opportunities in neighbouring countries. That would both drive growth and reduce some of the migration pull factors.

Critically, this plan to reenergise the country needs to be sold positively. A large chunk of the population must believe the vision is achievable and the policies can work. That requires an upbeat presentation for two reasons: first, people are simply much more drawn to positive things – it’s why Strictly gets more viewers than Panorama; and secondly, if the champions of the plan aren’t excited about it, no one else can be expected to be.

This isn’t about promising quick wins or insisting Britain is “the best place in the world.” It’s about honesty, strength and purpose, with the upbeat tone that comes from deciding to reverse the spiral of decline rather than narrate it. Then we will have something to look forward to – something more inspiring than the chance to cut the half-time orange.