Public Expects To See Improvements In NHS, Schools And Housing Before The Next General Election
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to hospital staff after the Autumn Budget last year (Alamy)
3 min read
The public expects to see tangible improvements in this Parliament in the NHS, schools and housing, according to new polling.
In the general election last year, Labour won a landslide victory against a backdrop of strong public desire for change. However, in a speech the month after the election, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “change would not happen overnight”.
“When there is deep rot in the heart of a structure, you can’t just cover it up,” he said.
“You can’t tinker with it or rely on quick fixes. You have to overhaul the entire thing. Tackle it at root. Even if it’s harder work and takes more time.”
New polling from the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and YouGov, seen by PoliticsHome, has tested the extent to which the public has patience for change. Respondents were asked how many years from now they would expect to see noticeable improvements as a result of Labour government policy across the NHS, schools, and housing.
The median response for the NHS and schools was two years, while the median response for housing was three years – which are all timeframes within this Parliament and before the next general election (expected in 2029).
Breaking down the results by how people voted in 2024 showed that Labour and Lib Dem voters had slightly more patience for how long reforms could take to have an impact.
On the NHS, for example, Labour and Lib Dem voters said they expected it to take three years before they felt the effects of change, compared to two years for all other voter groups.
Dr Karl Pike, senior lecturer at QMUL, told PoliticsHome that there is a “lot of evidence” to support the government’s growth strategy of announcing significant public investment, as was seen in last week’s Spending Review.
“But one of the things is that it takes time for investment to get going and then for economic activity to come from that investment, and therefore for growth,” he said.
“When the public hears politicians talk about the long term and when things are going to get better, what does that really mean to people?”
He explained that the public understands ‘short term’ to mean up to about three years, and long term up to around 10 years.
“What we found is people expect to see noticeable change in what they think of as the short term,” Pike continued.
Some of the government’s biggest proposed reforms have long timeframes for implementation and for the knock-on economic benefits to be felt by the public.
This is potentially why No10 has made recent efforts to push – for example on Reddit – some short-term ‘wins’, particularly on the topics of potholes, transport, policing and crime, and breakfast clubs for children.
Former Labour parliamentary candidate and director of the Good Growth Foundation, Praful Nargund, previously told PoliticsHome that the government would need to “face two ways”, looking to ensure long-term growth and investment while also establishing what the short-term benefits are for the public.
