Realising Britain/'s Potential: Future Strategic Challenges For ...
Realising Britain’s Potential
Future Strategic Challenges for Britain
REALISING BRITAIN’S POTENTIAL:
FUTURE STRATEGIC CHALLENGES FOR BRITAIN
Introduction
Britain is one of the most prosperous, successful countries in the world.
And it has made great progress over the past decade, maintaining its
traditional strengths of an open economy and tolerant society while
tackling poverty, improving health and educational outcomes and
becoming a better place for the many rather than the few.
But, if Britain and its people are to continue to prosper, new and
growing challenges must be faced and new opportunities embraced.
The Prime Minister therefore asked the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet
Office to undertake a major assessment of the future challenges facing
Britain.
This assessment has now been completed and is available as a Strategy
Unit discussion paper, Realising Britain’s Potential: Future Strategic
Challenges for Britain. Drawing on an analysis of trends and drivers of
change, future projections and scenarios from inside and outside
government and a detailed analysis of Britain’s strengths and
weaknesses, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the long term
challenges and opportunities facing Britain, covering:
• globalisation
• economic prosperity
• life chances, talent and social mobility
• the ageing and increasing diversity of the population
• family life and communities
• crime and public safety
• public services
• climate change, and
• the modernisation and renewal of the constitution and
democratic institutions
The assessment suggests Britain is well placed to address these
challenges and opportunities, and sets out a wealth of facts and
insights to back this up.
The Strategy Unit
1 February 2008
NOT A STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY
Realising Britain’s Potential
Future Strategic Challenges for Britain
Key themes and messages
The world around us is going to change profoundly. By 2020 China will
be the 2nd and India the 6th largest economy in the world; 40% of the
world’s labour force will be in China and India; the world’s population
will have grown by another 1.2bn; and there will be increasing effects
of climate change and increased pressure on global resources.
These global changes will inevitably increase competitive pressures on
Britain. But, notwithstanding future challenges, the UK economy is
fundamentally strong. Global changes will in any case open up a host of
opportunities for Britain. Not just huge new markets in countries such
as China and India but opportunities to create value from new
technologies and innovation. The transition to a low carbon, low waste
economy for example will open up vast new markets in environmental
technologies. 400,000 people in the UK already have jobs in
environmental goods and services, and this market is expected to at
least double in size over the next ten years.
This doesn’t mean global change isn’t without risks. Clearly, as
economies become increasingly interconnected, what happens in one
country can quickly impact on others as the recent US credit crunch has
shown. And Britain needs to respond to the growth of developing
economies by moving increasingly into high value added sectors. The
key is to manage and mitigate these risks through, amongst other
things, open, flexible and adaptable markets; investment in skills,
talent and opportunity for all; promoting a climate favourable to
enterprise; and engaging all regions and localities of the UK in
contributing to future prosperity.
Promoting skills, talent and opportunity will be especially important.
Though substantial progress has been made in tackling poverty and
promoting opportunity over the past ten years, there remain persistent
gaps between the life chances of people from different backgrounds
starting from birth and continuing throughout their lives. Countries
with strong investment in early years rank highly on measures of
educational excellence and equity. And as businesses move increasingly
into high value added sectors, where the UK has comparative
advantage, and seek employees with high skills, it will be ever more
important to give those adults with no or low skills second chances to
find and progress in work.
The Strategy Unit
2 February 2008
NOT A STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY
Realising Britain’s Potential
Future Strategic Challenges for Britain
For many jobs softer skills (such as good inter-personal, communication
and team working skills) will be increasingly important and, for those
young people that do not go onto university, the apprenticeships
programme will have a central role to play in helping them to develop
such skills.
There will be major demographic and social changes. As a result of
ageing and net migration, the UK population is likely to grow to 67m by
2020. The number of people over 85 is expected to grow by 50% by
2020 adding further pressures to health, social care and other services.
Family life will continue to change with average family size continuing
to get smaller, more women delaying or having no children and more
people living alone. This doesn’t mean people don’t value family life –
on the contrary the evidence shows families are crucial to our well
being. Strong, safe communities without crime and anti-social
behaviour which provide healthy, happy and vibrant places to live will
be increasingly important in supporting families and family life.
Public and individual expectations will continue to rise. People will
increasingly access information and opinion from more diverse sources,
impacting not only on their attitudes, but also their values,
expectations and behaviours. Rising expectations will have particular
consequences for public services.
Allied to economic, social and demographic change, technological
innovation and other trends, public services will need to be tailored
and personalised to individual needs. Public services will have to place
greater emphasis on innovation, diversity of supply, user
responsiveness, collaboration between users and providers, prevention,
professionalism and value for money for the taxpayer.
Climate change, driven by human activity, is the greatest long-term
threat facing the world today. Taking action to mitigate it is possible,
but this will require decisive international action. The UK will need to
play its role both as a leader of international change but also through
its own domestic commitments.
The increasing skew in political and civic participation - with the young
and disadvantaged half as likely to participate in politics as other
groups – will need to be addressed. The Government’s agenda for
modernising the constitution and renewing our democracy at national
and local level will be central to addressing this.
The Strategy Unit
3 February 2008
NOT A STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY
Realising Britain’s Potential
Future Strategic Challenges for Britain
Further information
Copies of the Strategy Unit report are available at
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/
The Strategy Unit
4 February 2008
NOT A STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY
