‘The hardest part of governing isn’t making promises – it’s delivering them’

The prospect of a change of Prime Minister inevitably brings questions about priorities, personalities and policy. It should also prompt a conversation about something less visible but just as important: are pledges realistic, can promises be kept, can government deliver ambitions.

The debate over the Defence Investment Plan has brought that question into sharp focus. Britain faces a more dangerous and uncertain world than it did even when Labour took office in July 2024.  The first duty of any government is the security of the country.  Labour should be proud of the investment it has made in our Armed Forces and defence industry, raising defence spending and setting a clear strategic direction.

But there is a danger in treating the level of spending as the whole argument. It is not. As Polly Billington and I argued on LabourList previously, how government spends money is every bit as important as how much it spends. A poorly managed defence budget does not make Britain safer. It simply turns scarce public money into delayed programmes, cancelled projects and equipment that reaches the front line too slowly.

The National Audit Office has repeatedly highlighted weaknesses in defence procurement. Ajax alone suffered years of delay, unresolved technical problems and poor value for money. More broadly, the NAO has identified recurring problems with contract management, supplier performance and unrealistic planning. These are not simply procurement failures. They are failures of delivery.

Over the next decade, procurement speed, industrial capacity and managerial discipline will matter just as much as funding. Government needs stronger commercial, engineering and project-management capability, backed by clear accountability and the authority to make decisions. Success should be rewarded, responsibility should be clear and procurement should focus relentlessly on what improves Britain’s operational capability quickly and affordably. Every pound lost through delay is a pound that cannot strengthen Britain’s security.

But defence is only where these weaknesses are most visible.

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Nobody comes to one of our constituency surgeries asking for machinery of government reform. They come because they cannot get a GP appointment, because a road has not been repaired, because a planning decision has taken too long or because a public service has let them down. They do not care how Whitehall is organised or which department is responsible. They have very simple and reasonable expectations.  Government should help them. Government should work.  

The same questions about leadership, accountability and delivery run through housing, infrastructure, health, energy, border security and countless other public services. Better government is not an abstract constitutional ambition. It should mean better public services and better outcomes for the people who rely on them.

These questions have become increasingly difficult to ignore. The Effective Governance Forum’s recent report, Restoring Public Confidence in Government, is a timely contribution to that debate. Its central argument is simple: governments cannot restore public confidence unless they become better at delivering what they promise.

One of its most important observations is that this debate cannot simply be framed as “civil service reform”. That suggests the problem begins and ends with officials. It does not. Ministers, Parliament, public bodies and public services all have a part to play in building a state that delivers more effectively.

The report is also right that reorganisations and new structures rarely improve performance on their own. Public confidence is earned when ministers set a clear direction, officials have the capability to deliver it, and people experience better services as a result. That demands leadership, expertise, and a willingness to confront problems honestly rather than simply manage process. Those are the qualities Labour’s mission will depend upon if it is to achieve real improvements that the public feel.

The EGF’s proposal for a State Effectiveness Council deserves serious consideration. Modelled on the National Security Council, it would provide a permanent mechanism for driving improvement across government instead of relying on short-lived reform programmes that disappear with each ministerial reshuffle.

Governments of every political persuasion have discovered how difficult it is to deliver lasting change through systems that are fragmented, slow, and risk-averse. Better government is not an end in itself. It is how we build stronger public services, greater national resilience and renewed public confidence.

The recent debate over defence has reminded us that the hardest part of governing is rarely deciding what needs to be done. It is building a government capable of doing it.

Labour was elected to renew Britain. Renewal is not just about deciding what government wants to do. It is about building a state capable of doing it.

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