Ten key takeaways from Labour’s NPF report (Aug 2026)

Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) is the party’s formal mechanism for policy discussion between elections.

It brings together party members, trade unions, elected representatives, experts and organisations from across the Labour movement.

The latest annual report follows a 14-week consultation that began in March 2026 and concluded in June. The NPF consultation attracted almost 1,600 submissions. The six policy commissions held more than 40 meetings and evidence sessions with over 50 organisations, while almost 300 Labour members took part in online events. 

The report will now go to Labour’s annual conference as part of the party’s continuing policy development process.

So what does it tell us about Labour’s policy agenda?

1. Growth & Devolution

The NPF’s economic commission puts local government, mayors and communities at the centre of Labour’s approach to growth.

The report backs further devolution, while welcoming Labour’s £5.8 billion Pride in Place programme. As part of the devolution package being delivered by the government, the report outlines stronger local powers for Mayors over transport, planning and economic development. Enhanced powers will ensure all mayoral authorities “develop a 10-year growth plan”. 

Local high streets are reported as being “at the heart” of Labour’s plan for economic growth. 

The report also highlights £20m to be spent over ten years for more than 250 neighbourhoods, alongside £39bn for new social and affordable homes, including council housing. 

Encouraging economic growth across communities will be a key measure in the government’s attempt to tackle the cost of living crisis.

2. Clean energy as an industrial strategy

The NPF presents Labour’s clean-energy agenda as about more than meeting climate targets.

It links clean power and independent energy security to lower bills, better investment and jobs. The submissions to the consultation on energy are reported as welcoming toward measures such as Great British Energy, the Warm Homes Plan, £100 million investment in renewables and bringing forward an era of nuclear power. 

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The report also states the commission heard widespread support for the Government’s Local Power Plan, which provides communities a greater stake in local energy generation.

The Warm Homes Plan is intended to take one million families out of fuel poverty, while the Clean Energy Jobs Plan is intended to create routes into employment in the next generation of clean-energy industries.

The overall conclusion appears clear that the NPF believes clean energy investments will help to provide economic security as much as they benefit the environment. 

3. Water regulation

The NPF report argues that the water industry is one of the clearest examples of existing regulation that has failed.

The report supports the Clean Water Bill, including the abolition of Ofwat and its replacement with a single tougher regulator. It also backs tougher pollution targets, action against unfair bonuses and greater investment in cleaning up waterways.

The report does not settle the wider question of ownership. Its focus is instead on holding water companies to account, forcing further investment in the water industry, improving environmental performance and rebuilding public confidence.

4. Immigration

On immigration, the NPF seeks to combine stronger border control with safe and legal routes.

It states the public has lost confidence in the immigration system and accepts the broad range of concern across the political spectrum. The report concludes that to restore public trust the system must be fair, effective and properly managed. It outlines public dissatisfaction at irregular migration and channel crossings. 

It backs action against people-smuggling networks, better asylum decision-making and returns for those without a right to remain. The commission agrees that the Home Office has made significant progress in reducing the asylum decision backlog, with the number of people waiting for an initial decision dropping by 55%. 

The report supports Government expansion of safe and legal routes for refugees through university, occupation and community sponsorships. It argues that safe and legal routes can complement stronger border security and reduce the market for people smugglers.

5. Community cohesion & justice

The NPF treats public confidence in policing, courts and other institutions as closely connected to community cohesion.

Its evidence sessions highlighted misinformation, online tensions and declining trust, alongside the need to tackle antisemitism and Islamophobia. 

The report also identifies serious problems in the criminal courts, with a backlog of around 80,000 cases and some trials being listed as far ahead as 2029 and 2030.

Its conclusion is that criminal justice reform cannot simply be about speeding up the courts backlog but that wider systemic reform is required across the whole system. It outlines legal aid, sentencing, prisons and workforce capacity all needing Government attention.

6. NEETs

More than one million young people are currently not in employment, education or training. 84% of NEETs want a job or training but or not provided with adequate support, as highlighted in the Milburn review. The NPF warns that this could rise to 1.25 million within five years if nothing changes.

The report backs the Youth Guarantee, which is intended to create 500,000 work and training opportunities backed by £2.5bn.

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The report describes this as a “crisis of opportunity that risks failing a generation” framing youth unemployment as a failure to give people a route into a secure working life, rather than simply a failure to find work.

Apprenticeships are outlined as a key part of the Government’s plan to tackle this, alongside measures such as the Youth Guarantee investment and the Youth Jobs Grant funding. 

The report outlines Labour maintaining its commitment to the target of two-thirds of young people going to university, further education or taking on a gold standard apprenticeship.

7. The opportunity agenda goes beyond unemployment

The NPF also focuses on people who face barriers to work because of ill health or disability, as well as children with SEND and those growing up in poverty.

It supports more personalised employment support and the Connect to Work programme, while its SEND work emphasises stronger local provision and better training for teachers and support staff. 

The commission also considers the wider relationship between family circumstances, poverty, education and opportunity.

The broader message is that opportunity policy cannot simply mean getting more people into jobs. 

The NPF acknowledges health, education, disability, family and economic circumstances all affect people’s ability to participate fully in society and the economy.

8. NHS Reform, National Care Service and AI

The NPF’s health commission focuses on the shift from hospital to community care in Labour’s 10 Year Health Plan.

Its ambition is for neighbourhood health services where people can access a wider range of services closer to home. This would bring primary care, dentistry, diagnostics, mental health and social care closer to communities.

The report describes the ambition particularly clearly, stating that “turning our national health service into a neighbourhood health service” is central to Labour’s vision, so that care can happen as close to home as possible.

That represents a significant change in emphasis towards prevention and earlier intervention, rather than relying on hospitals as the main point of contact.

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The report also argues that the NHS cannot be put on a sustainable footing without tackling social care.

The NPF supports the direction towards a National Care Service, specifically welcoming Baroness Casey’s work on a long-term plan to reform adult social care and outlining this as a “vital first step” to delivery of a national care service. 

The report welcomes the first Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care. It also highlights additional investment in mental health, including a £140m rise in real-terms funding and £473m of capital investment over four years.

Dentistry is another major concern, with the commission supporting reform of the NHS dental contract and measures to improve access.

The NPF sees digital technology and AI as potentially valuable tools for improving public services, particularly the NHS.

It highlights AI scribes, online consultations and a single patient record as ways of reducing bureaucracy and making care more joined-up. 

But the report also stresses privacy, accountability and digital inclusion, warning that technology should not replace human care.

9. Defence spending & industry

The NPF increasingly treats defence as part of Britain’s wider economic resilience.

It supports using increased defence investment to strengthen British manufacturing, supply chains and regional economies. It also calls for better apprenticeships, STEM education and support for smaller suppliers.

This is an industrial-strategy argument as much as a defence one: spending on national security should also build productive capacity and good jobs in Britain.

10. Labour wants a more active international role

The NPF sets out an internationalist approach based on stronger partnerships.

It supports a closer relationship with Europe on security, trade and industrial policy while maintaining the UK’s relationship with the US and deepening engagement in the Indo-Pacific. 

It also argues for stronger partnerships with countries in the Global South, based on investment, technology, jobs and resilience.

The NPF also backs Labour’s commitment to protecting women and girls living in conflicts and continuing humanitarian support for civilians in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine. It highlights the additional £23m provided to Palestinian refugees in Gaza through UNRWA as evidence of that commitment.

With regard to the conflict in Iran, the report acknowledges the Party’s “principled approach”, while also recognising the importance of UK-US relations.

The report also treats cyber security, AI and misinformation as increasingly important parts of national security, arguing for greater international cooperation while retaining democratic oversight.

Click here to read the full NPF report.

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