The case for reform is stronger than ever - but the window is small

The task now is to turn appetite for change into action — linking Westminster’s reformers with those outside the system ready to help

As rejection politics grows, the task is to build a coalition that can drive real reform in Westminster and government - working with citizens to restore trust and shape Britain’s future. A first meeting was held last month to explore longterm national strategymaking

1. Picking up the thread

In my last piece, The Moment for Real Reform, I argued that the UK government system has a chronic flaw: it defects to the short term, unable to grapple with the long-term risks and opportunities that will shape our collective future. This short-termism is now not just inefficient — it’s existential.

Since then, the picture has intensified. Across the UK, support is fragmenting rapidly, with citizens increasingly turning away from the traditional parties and institutions that once anchored stability. Peter Kellner observed in his piece today: “Today’s polls suggest the joint support of the two main legacy parties, Labour and Conservative, is now below 40 per cent, less than half the 84 per cent just eight years ago. We are traversing uncharted territory.” This shift reflects a deeper erosion of legitimacy and trust in the system itself — a sense that the institutions that once mediated difference are no longer capable of bringing the country together to decide what to do.

The deeper truth is a common one across late-stage representative democracies across the world: Reform and similar movements are succeeding as a rejection vote. It is the “not-this-system” party, a vessel for anti-Westminster sentiment. What this reveals is not an appetite for specific solutions, but the power of narrative to engage with citizens’ concerns about the future. People are responding to the story and its world view, not the content of policy - as seen in recent polling in Wales, where high support comes despite an absence of a policy platform. And unless the system can offer a different story — one that acknowledges grievances, signals meaningful change, and resets the relationship between government and citizens — the risk is that divisive narratives fill the vacuum.

The challenge, then, is not one of incremental adjustment. It is to craft a shared vision of the future that matches the scale of change people are demanding while fostering solidarity and cohesion - a national strategy in which all generations can thrive. From there, reforms must be ambitious enough to meet the aspirations of this vision, honouring the responsibility we hold to our children and our children’s children.

The implications of a more heterogeneous and fragmented political landscape are clear: Parliament will need to play a more dominant role in mediating across perspectives and leading coalition-based approaches to national renewal.

2. A moment of opportunity

Despite the gravity, there is an opening. In my earlier article, I suggested that the stars are aligning for serious reform — and that many in Westminster are ready to grasp it. The Heywood Fellowship’s work on Long-term National Strategy has created space to ask deeper questions about how Britain plans for the future and will share its final recommendations this month.

That is why we convened a group of parliamentarians in Westminster earlier in September: to test appetite, surface priorities, and explore how the current moment might become the start of major systemic change for how the UK governs its future.

Seven challenges and opportunities

The discussion surfaced seven critical issues — challenges repeatedly identified by parliamentary and think tank reports, but now crystallising into a practical agenda. The Heywood Fellowship proposals, if developed ambitiously, help tackle them:

1. Quality foresight linked to decisions: ensuring data and analysis about the future connects into senior decision-making through a central foresight and strategy unit.

2. Fiscal integration: aligning long-term strategy with fiscal planning and independent audit — Treasury practice, the Green Book, and discounting factors included.

3. A longer planning horizon: building cycles and structures (20-year horizons with 5-year strategies) that counter siloed, short-term pressures.

4. Culture and capability change: equipping ministers and civil servants with skills, practices, and an intergenerational fairness principle that can shift behaviour.

5. Managing political incentives: creating a cross-party Parliamentary Committee for the Future as a whole-system lynchpin, connecting the dots across issues, and engaging citizens in constructive narratives beyond party divides.

6. Public engagement: enabling citizen deliberation and co-creation, demonstrating that their concerns about the future matter, and building momentum for long-term solutions

7. Driving change through local government and wider society: recognising that innovation and activation are happening locally and in civil society, business, and academia — and building stronger bridges to them.

3. Parliament as Guardian of the Wellbeing of Current and Future Generations

These seven points reinforce that the challenge is systemic - across political and governance culture. And when the government implements these recommendations, how should Parliament itself contribute to meeting the moment? What is the role of Parliament to convene and connect with citizens and government, particularly in the context of the fragmentation of political party support?

More importantly - how can such an agenda feel meaningful to citizens and not just more of the same bureaucratisation and sedimentation of the existing system? Citizens disillusioned with Westminster and Whitehall will not be convinced by incremental reform: there needs to be a commitment to meaningful change that cuts through. To move forward, we need commitments that can both move the needle and carry broad support and signal a clear disruption of business-as-usual — visible proof that the government is prepared to do things differently. One framing is for Parliament to act as guardian of both current and future generations — to grip difficult issues, engage citizens, and rebuild the intergenerational social contract.

This commitment will take time to implement: it will extend beyond the next two years. But it must now, while cross-party interest exists and before campaigning for the next election starts and should focus on three pillars:

• An intergenerational fairness commitment, embedded across all levels of government, and with a scrutiny mechanism, to ensure that the young, the old, and future generations are protected and considered in every major decision made by government

• A cross-party Parliamentary Committee of the Future with the mechanism and duty to engage with citizens.

• Government-wide strategic planning on 20-year cycles, at all levels of government. Tied to fiscal planning and budgets, with citizen dialogue and scenario testing built in, and that taps into the innovative potential of citizens (see example below).

Case Example: Unlocking Better Solutions

In a recent conversation with Henrietta Moore at UCL’s Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP), we were struck by how intergenerational, transversal, participatory, foresight-informed approaches unlock solutions that are not only fairer, but also cheaper and more effective.

Citizens, when empowered, imagined joined-up interventions: insulating older people’s homes while training young people in green jobs; pairing energy efficiency with mobility adaptations to prevent costly falls; creating regular community check-ins. Instead of a politically divisive and expensive subsidy for older people’s energy bills, the outcome was a policy package that reduced energy poverty, created jobs, and lowered social care costs.

This is the value of the intergenerational fairness lens: it reveals connections across time, groups, and issues, enabling the design of interventions that are financially viable, politically palatable, and socially impactful. It moves us from siloed policymaking to real-world packages that deliver.

4. Allies outside the system

The good news is that government is not alone. Beyond Westminster, there is a growing ecosystem of allies — business, academia, civil society, young people themselves — ready to help build this future.

• The National Strategy for Next Generations (NSxNG) has convened intergenerational futures dialogues led by young people in more than 50 communities, surfacing new language, trade-offs, and policy ideas.

• Involve has been central in running citizens’ assemblies and participatory forums on climate, democracy, and constitutional reform.

• Climate Assembly UK and local assemblies in Scotland, Camden, and Leeds have pioneered deliberation on climate strategy.

• The IPPR Environmental Justice Commission embedded citizen juries into its climate and economic justice recommendations.

• The National Strategy Project (launching later this year) will demonstrate how strategic capacity can be strengthened in practical ways across society.

• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is supporting networks of young changemakers.
  The UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) and Rethinking Economics UK mobilise youth for systemic change.

• Our House leads bottom up national visioning and storytelling by creating a series of ‘people’s charters’ for the four nations addressing values and demands.

• The RSA, Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), Carnegie UK Trust, British Academy, and the Future Governance Forum are advancing long-term perspectives.

• Local authorities are testing innovations: Future Councils, Waltham Forest and Oxford citizens’ assemblies, and Greater Manchester’s Our People, Our Place.

• Creative projects — from films to citizen campaigns — are mobilising younger generations who currently lack formal channels into the system.

This is a wave of innovation, energy, and commitment — but until the system builds key docking points for meaningful engagement and decision-making, frustration will grow. If it does open up, the potential to build a broad coalition for solidarity — rather than division — is immense.

Closing

Let’s address the symptom of our broken relationship between citizens and the state — a legacy of retail-based and technocratic engagement over the past thirty years of new public management. The only viable response is a bold reset: embedding long-term fairness, systemic foresight, and citizen engagement at the heart of our governance to get better outcomes for people’s lives.

The Heywood Fellowship’s recommendations on long-term national strategy, the Liaison Committee’s 2024 proposal for a Parliamentary Committee of the Future, and the idea of a national principle of intergenerational fairness all point to a moment for action. The opportunity is here. The allies are ready.

The next step is to bring together those particularly interested in continuing this endeavour — organised around a proposed shared purpose: an informal, cross-party group of parliamentarians committed to tackling short-termism and seizing the opportunity presented by the Heywood proposals. These MPs and peers, young and old, will act as a cross-party group of core champions, leading the charge inside the system while connecting with the many allies outside it — from civil society and local government to business, academia, and young people. Effectively acting as a shadow Committee for the Future until a formal one is established.

In parallel, a Cabinet Office or No. 10 taskforce must be formed to take forward the Heywood Fellowship recommendations: piloting and testing proposals, using the playbook approach on key policy areas, and building the capability to deliver at scale. The upcoming Integrated Review in 2027 should be designed for and conducted as a whole-of-society National Strategy endeavour. The taskforce should work closely with Parliament, young people, and local government to open up genuine engagement with society, while building a network of innovative officials across government and Parliament.

Together, this internal mobilisation can ignite the energy, ideas, and partnerships already waiting to connect with a Parliament and government ready to deliver real reform and build a future-fit state.