Prime minister Keir Starmer has set out six milestones to improve life in the UK, raised the issue of public sector productivity and put pressure on civil servants to become ‘mission-led’.
In a speech at Pinewood Studios near Slough, Starmer said the government would set out to: improve living standards in every region of the country; build 1.5 million new homes; put more police on the beat; give children the best start in life at school; implement clean power; and cut NHS waiting lists to 18 weeks between referral and treatment.
I don’t think there’s a swamp to be drained here. But I do think too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline” – Keir Starmer
His address, said many commentators, appeared aimed partly at Whitehall officials and the wider civil service. Starmer cited Office for National Statistics figures when referring to productivity in the public sector being 2.6% lower than this time last year, and 8.5% lower than just before the pandemic. He said this would not be acceptable in any other sector and that his government would refuse to subsidise this with “ever rising taxes on the British people”.
He added that he wanted to fix Whitehall’s eyes on the “long-term good of our country” and commit the civil service to mission-led government.
“Make no mistake – this plan will land on desks across Whitehall,” the prime minister said, “with the heavy thud of a gauntlet being thrown down.”
Productivity
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He added: “I don’t think there’s a swamp to be drained here. But I do think too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline.”
He said the time was right to set out the six milestones because policies to establish a “strong foundation” of economic stability were already in train and this now allowed Labour to look ahead.
The Conservative opposition responded to the speech by saying the government didn’t know what it was doing while Reform UK pointed to the lack of a milestone on immigration.
Meanwhile, the UK’s civil service has been ranked sixth in a new global index of civil services around the world.
Singapore’s civil service tops the Blavatnik Index of Public Administration, which was published on Wednesday, with Norway in second, Canada and Denmark in joint third place, Finland fifth, and then New Zealand and the UK in joint sixth position. Australia, Spain, France, Germany, the USA and Sweden were among countries below the UK.
The results are based on comparative performances across 82 metrics from 18 data sources.
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The UK civil service has received an index score of 0.80 out of a maximum potential score of 1, with Singapore’s score of 0.85 leading the table and Sudan’s score of 0.17 placing it bottom of the rankings.
Leo Yip, the head of the Singapore Civil Service, said he was “humbled” by the country’s first-place ranking.
