The final report of Demos' Renew Normal Commission sets out an aspirational policy agenda, with resilience at the heart of it, that can bridge political divides and drive both recovery and renewal to build back stronger.

The report finds that in order for the nation to succeed as we emerge from the pandemic, there are five key lessons that the government must learn and take forward:

1. There is consensus for change. Don’t pretend this didn’t happen – attempts to return the United Kingdom to the way things were before the pandemic will fail, because this is not what the public want or what business will invest in.
2. Level up people, not just places – the Commission found that the things people learned to value during the pandemic, like green space, are less available to those in poorer areas, with disabled and ethnic minority groups often less able to access them.
3. Community makes us stronger, not just happier – the Commission finds that the pandemic has proved that community networks are a vital component of national resilience. National shielding support schemes and national test and trace were regularly out-performed by their local counterparts.
4. Remote working and online shopping are here to stay. We have to adapt – there has been an unprecedented shift of our lives online. While it has not been perfect, the reality is that we are not going back to how things were before.
5. We need to redesign the places where we live and work – pre-pandemic it was increasingly clear that we needed to reshape the places where we live to increase civic space, adapt to climate change, and to accommodate the needs of an ageing population. The pandemic accelerated many of these long term trends. This raises huge questions for the physical infrastructure of the country.