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UK Government’s Progress on Key Pledges Shows Mixed Results

One year after Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled his ambitious “Plan for Change,” the government faces scrutiny over its performance against major policy targets set to be achieved by 2029. As Starmer prepares to face questioning from the House of Commons Liaison Committee, early indicators suggest varying levels of progress across housing, healthcare, and economic pledges.

The housing sector presents perhaps the most significant challenge for the government. Ministers committed to delivering 1.5 million net additional homes in England over the parliamentary term—requiring an average construction rate of approximately 300,000 homes annually. Current figures show only about 200,000 homes being built per year, creating a substantial shortfall against this target.

Government officials maintain they plan to accelerate construction in later years to reach the 1.5 million goal. However, housing experts note that the current delivery rate actually lags behind the final years of the previous Conservative administration, raising questions about the feasibility of this pledge without significant policy interventions or increased investment in the construction sector.

The UK’s housing market has long faced structural challenges, including planning restrictions, skilled labor shortages, and supply chain issues. The government’s ability to address these fundamental barriers will likely determine whether the housing pledge remains achievable or becomes an early policy setback.

In healthcare, the government committed to ensuring 92% of patients in England would receive treatment within 18 weeks of referral. Current performance sits far below this target, with only about 62% of patients being seen within this timeframe. This represents a significant gap that must be closed over the coming years.

There are, however, modest signs of improvement. Recent NHS England data shows a slight upward trajectory in waiting time performance over the past year. This comes after a dramatic decline during the COVID-19 pandemic when the percentage of patients seen within 18 weeks plummeted to approximately 45% in 2020, followed by a recovery to around 70% in 2021, before another decline to about 60% by 2024.

Healthcare analysts suggest that addressing the NHS backlog requires not only additional funding but also structural reforms to increase capacity and efficiency within the health service. The government faces the dual challenge of improving immediate performance metrics while also implementing longer-term sustainable solutions to chronic NHS staffing and resource issues.

On living standards, the government pledged to increase real household disposable income per person—a comprehensive measure of what citizens have left after accounting for taxes, benefits, and inflation. According to Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts, this metric is expected to grow by approximately 0.5% annually during the current parliament.

While this represents positive movement, the projected growth would still make this parliamentary term the second weakest for living standards improvement since the 1970s. Only the previous Conservative government’s term from 2019 to 2024, when living standards actually declined, performed worse on this measure.

Historical context shows significant variance in living standard growth across different parliamentary terms. The highest growth occurred between 1987 and 1992, reaching nearly 4% annually, while recent periods have seen much more modest improvements, with 2017-2019 recording about 1.8% growth before the decline during the 2019-2024 period.

Economic experts point to multiple factors influencing these projections, including the ongoing impacts of Brexit, global economic uncertainties, and the fiscal constraints facing the government after inheriting significant public debt. The modest improvement in living standards follows a challenging period for UK households that experienced a severe cost-of-living crisis.

As Starmer faces questioning from senior MPs today, these early performance indicators will likely form the basis for robust scrutiny of the government’s progress. While ministers can point to modest improvements in some areas compared to their predecessors, the substantial gaps between current performance and stated targets highlight the scale of the challenges ahead in fulfilling the “Plan for Change” by 2029.