Over the last 14 years, the UK's Conservative-led governments oversaw the hollowing out of public services. The effects of this have been felt across the nation. This report sets out the most pressing problems facing the new government, in four key areas – health and social care, local government, criminal justice and schools – and the cross-cutting issues that compound them. 

The report also offers a warning to the new administration that sticking to the status quo means most services are likely to be performing worse at the next election in 2028/29 than at the last election in 2019. 

Key recommendations

• Focus on a small number of priorities to spend money more effectively.
• Make changes to the spending framework to provide front-line services with more autonomy and to embed prevention and improvements to capital spending.
• Make changes to regulations, tax or other policies to reduce demand as part of a prevention strategy.
• Improve the relationship with public sector staff.