The United Kingdom is stuck.
The country is gripped by a series of seemingly unending crises that have left us weakened and exhausted. Meanwhile, the world around us has become ever more complex and dangerous.
For most of us, the promise of national renewal feels far off, a slog the country seems ill-equipped to bear. Yet it is a promise worth preserving — and fighting for.
As society becomes more polarised, shifting the electorate towards either end of the political spectrum, the need to create new shared assumptions of a better, hopeful future is greater than it has been for half a century or more.
More muscular, progressive government has the potential to take bold and effective action to address this need. But right now, the state itself is acting as an obstacle to that happening. Systems and institutions are out of step with today’s realities — distant from people’s lives and far too slow to help us shape a better future for everybody.
Since launching in 2023, The Future Governance Forum (FGF) has made a significant contribution to thinking about how the country could be governed differently. We have published detailed recommendations to: transform Downing Street, reform the state to deliver regional growth, fix our broken asylum system and develop a new model of public-private Infrastructure Investment Partnerships (IIPs).
And many of our recommendations have been taken up by the government.
In September 2025, a series of changes to Sir Keir Starmer’s No. 10 operation were announced, including the appointment of a new Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, with steps to clarify roles and responsibilities. These were closely aligned with the recommendations in our Transforming Downing Street report.
Our Rebuilding the Nation reports helped inform the Chancellor’s Mansion House pension reforms, the Pension Schemes Bill, and changes to the UK’s fiscal framework announced at the 2024 Budget, which unlocked over £100bn of capital investment.
Recommendations in our Impactful Devolution 01 report for statutory ‘Local Growth Plans’ were also adopted by the government, with further recommendations widely reflected in the English Devolution White Paper.
But the task is far from over. We need to continue rethinking and rebuilding the state’s capacity to deliver results that people notice, and that impact upon their daily lives. Done right, this could help repair our broken social fabric, and solve the crisis of political legitimacy afflicting the UK.
Looking to the future
Having established our credentials over the past two years, FGF will continue to examine how we can transform the state. Our definition will be intentionally broad, covering government structures, networks, behaviours and cultures; institutions and the mechanics that underpin them; public service reform; and new approaches to markets. We will also look at the interplay between sectors, the relationship between citizens and the state; and how the power of the state is organised and deployed.
Putting this into practice means focusing on three key areas.
Firstly, how might we renew vital institutions and establish new ones, fit for the future and built to last. We will concentrate on issues such as leadership, dynamic capabilities, accountability, cultures, and cross-institutional and outcomes-driven collaboration. Work has already begun with initial projects looking at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the establishment of Great British Railways.
Secondly, how can we reimagine public services that are more responsive, reliable and better attuned to individuals’ and communities’ needs. We’ll look into how policy is implemented in practice, but we’ll also consider wider issues such as behaviours, culture, experience and practice – with a project on codifying next-generation public service practice already underway.
And thirdly, we will ask how we can rethink markets and unlock investment to help promote sustainable economic growth, delivering greater prosperity for people, places and the UK economy. Projects are already underway on addressing barriers to clean energy regeneration, expanding access to finance for entrepreneurs, and promising scale-ups in under-represented regions of the UK.
On top of this, we will continue with two of our established work streams looking at how the government can meaningfully devolve power across the UK, and how we can create a more effective asylum system, rooted in progressive values and capable of rebuilding public trust.
The ‘How’ and the ‘Why’ – not just the ‘What’
All of our recommendations will continue to be designed to be usable by the people and organisations that need to implement them. This means setting out clear steps, tools, and realistic pathways to delivery. It also means continuing to connect our work to the lived reality of the state today, and the experience of frontline teams, to ensure our work is relevant, rooted in reality, and widely applicable.
Obviously, change doesn’t come from one organisation alone. Building broad coalitions of leaders across all tiers of government, civil society and the private sector has been a vital component of our work so far. As we look to the future, we will continue to grow and nurture these networks, bringing a coalition of voices together behind a shared mission to renew Britain and deliver better outcomes for citizens across the country.
And building on this, and all of our previous work, we will increasingly consider the ‘why’ of national renewal and transformation — broadening, strengthening and co-creating our critique of the British state in the process.
Our new Three Year Strategy aims to put FGF at the forefront of designing and sustaining a new vision for Britain. We can’t hope to build a better future if we remain stuck in the past. And that’s what we hope to deliver in the coming years – real change that will transform the state to renew the nation.
Transforming the state to renew the nation – FGF’s new strategy will help rebuild Britain
Director
The United Kingdom is stuck.
The country is gripped by a series of seemingly unending crises that have left us weakened and exhausted. Meanwhile, the world around us has become ever more complex and dangerous.
For most of us, the promise of national renewal feels far off, a slog the country seems ill-equipped to bear. Yet it is a promise worth preserving — and fighting for.
As society becomes more polarised, shifting the electorate towards either end of the political spectrum, the need to create new shared assumptions of a better, hopeful future is greater than it has been for half a century or more.
More muscular, progressive government has the potential to take bold and effective action to address this need. But right now, the state itself is acting as an obstacle to that happening. Systems and institutions are out of step with today’s realities — distant from people’s lives and far too slow to help us shape a better future for everybody.
Since launching in 2023, The Future Governance Forum (FGF) has made a significant contribution to thinking about how the country could be governed differently. We have published detailed recommendations to: transform Downing Street, reform the state to deliver regional growth, fix our broken asylum system and develop a new model of public-private Infrastructure Investment Partnerships (IIPs).
And many of our recommendations have been taken up by the government.
In September 2025, a series of changes to Sir Keir Starmer’s No. 10 operation were announced, including the appointment of a new Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, with steps to clarify roles and responsibilities. These were closely aligned with the recommendations in our Transforming Downing Street report.
Our Rebuilding the Nation reports helped inform the Chancellor’s Mansion House pension reforms, the Pension Schemes Bill, and changes to the UK’s fiscal framework announced at the 2024 Budget, which unlocked over £100bn of capital investment.
Recommendations in our Impactful Devolution 01 report for statutory ‘Local Growth Plans’ were also adopted by the government, with further recommendations widely reflected in the English Devolution White Paper.
But the task is far from over. We need to continue rethinking and rebuilding the state’s capacity to deliver results that people notice, and that impact upon their daily lives. Done right, this could help repair our broken social fabric, and solve the crisis of political legitimacy afflicting the UK.
Looking to the future
Having established our credentials over the past two years, FGF will continue to examine how we can transform the state. Our definition will be intentionally broad, covering government structures, networks, behaviours and cultures; institutions and the mechanics that underpin them; public service reform; and new approaches to markets. We will also look at the interplay between sectors, the relationship between citizens and the state; and how the power of the state is organised and deployed.
Putting this into practice means focusing on three key areas.
Firstly, how might we renew vital institutions and establish new ones, fit for the future and built to last. We will concentrate on issues such as leadership, dynamic capabilities, accountability, cultures, and cross-institutional and outcomes-driven collaboration. Work has already begun with initial projects looking at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the establishment of Great British Railways.
Secondly, how can we reimagine public services that are more responsive, reliable and better attuned to individuals’ and communities’ needs. We’ll look into how policy is implemented in practice, but we’ll also consider wider issues such as behaviours, culture, experience and practice – with a project on codifying next-generation public service practice already underway.
And thirdly, we will ask how we can rethink markets and unlock investment to help promote sustainable economic growth, delivering greater prosperity for people, places and the UK economy. Projects are already underway on addressing barriers to clean energy regeneration, expanding access to finance for entrepreneurs, and promising scale-ups in under-represented regions of the UK.
On top of this, we will continue with two of our established work streams looking at how the government can meaningfully devolve power across the UK, and how we can create a more effective asylum system, rooted in progressive values and capable of rebuilding public trust.
The ‘How’ and the ‘Why’ – not just the ‘What’
All of our recommendations will continue to be designed to be usable by the people and organisations that need to implement them. This means setting out clear steps, tools, and realistic pathways to delivery. It also means continuing to connect our work to the lived reality of the state today, and the experience of frontline teams, to ensure our work is relevant, rooted in reality, and widely applicable.
Obviously, change doesn’t come from one organisation alone. Building broad coalitions of leaders across all tiers of government, civil society and the private sector has been a vital component of our work so far. As we look to the future, we will continue to grow and nurture these networks, bringing a coalition of voices together behind a shared mission to renew Britain and deliver better outcomes for citizens across the country.
And building on this, and all of our previous work, we will increasingly consider the ‘why’ of national renewal and transformation — broadening, strengthening and co-creating our critique of the British state in the process.
Our new Three Year Strategy aims to put FGF at the forefront of designing and sustaining a new vision for Britain. We can’t hope to build a better future if we remain stuck in the past. And that’s what we hope to deliver in the coming years – real change that will transform the state to renew the nation.
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