Starmer's six pledges explained: What is Labour's 'plan for change' and what does it mean for you?
5 December 2024, 13:53 | Updated: 5 December 2024, 14:06
Keir Starmer has laid out six “milestone” targets as part of Labour’s “plan for change” unveiled on Thursday.
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The Prime Minister pledged to put “country first, party second”, in his speech from Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
The speech had been billed as a “reset” for Labour, which comes amid a flurry of challenges the party has faced in its first few months in government, from ministers accepting freebies to backlash for cutting winter fuel payments.
From improving living standards to putting more bobbies on the beat, here’s everything you need to know about the Prime Minister’s set of targets.
Raising living standards
The government has set a target of sustaining the highest growth in the G7 and improving living standards across the country.
Starmer said this would ensure “working people have more money in their pocket” and that “growth must be felt by everyone, everywhere”.
He refused to clarify whether he could achieve the highest sustained growth in the G7 by the end of this parliament in 2029, despite previously pledging to do so.
Starmer also set no specific target for how much we wanted to see living standards rise by.
Household disposable income grew on average by just 0.3% a year between 2019 and 2024, the worst parliamentary term for living standards since records began in the 1950s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Rebuild Britain
Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the parliament as part of its plan to “rebuild Britain”.
Starmer also said he would be “fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects”.
This will “send a very clear message to the nimbies, the regulators, the blockers, the bureaucrats, the alliance of naysayers, the people who say ‘no, Britain can’t do this, we can’t get things done in our country’”, he said.
Starmer added: “We say to them: ‘You no longer have the upper hand, Britain says yes’. Because whether you like it or not, we are building a future for working people, making our country strong with stability, investment and reform,”
This comes amid a shortage of affordable housing and a planning system in England which critics say is particularly restrictive.
Just 220,000 new homes were built from 2023-2024, a 6% drop from the previous year.
Ensure safer streets
The government wants to put more police on the beat to keep Britain’s streets safer, Starmer said.
The plan involves installing “a named police officer in every neighbourhood”, he announced. The contactable community officers will be responsible for dealing with local issues.
Speaking on LBC with Nick Ferrari, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "We are fixing the foundations, we are turning things round and we’re setting the priorities straight.
“I think the biggest priority for most people is to see those police and PCSOs – those neighbourhood police officers – back in their communities and out on our streets.
That is the most important priority for us."Labour has previously pledged to recruit 13,000 new police officers, Police Community Support Officer (PCSO’s), and special constables. The previous government pledged to recruit 20,000 new officersThere had been a steady dip in police numbers from 2010, which began to creep back up again from 2019.
As of March 2024, there were nearly 150,000 officers on the beat, a record high. The number of PCOSs and special constables has continued to drop.
Give children the best start in life
Starmer wants to get a "record proportion of five-year-olds starting school ready to learn". Currently, one in three children are not ready for school at the age of five, he said.
It means there are children in reception who aren’t able to start reading yet and are struggling to speak. He wants to get at least 75% of children under five ready for school by 2028.
In 2024, around 67.7% of children were judged to have a “good” level of development across maths, literacy and other subject areas.
Clean power by 2030
Starmer said that hitting this target would mean "never again" will the UK rely on "tyrants like Putin".
He has been accused of watering down Labour’s manifesto pledge as he promised that the country is only “on track to at least 95% clean power by 2030”.
Starmer made a pre-election promise of 100% clean power by this date.
New NHS targets
Labour is hoping to cut NHS waiting lists and clear the backlog to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
This, he said, would be “a symbol of an NHS back on its feet” if achieved.
It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to pump an extra £22billion into the NHS over the next two years to help cut waiting times
No immigration target?
Last week, Starmer told a press conference the UK’s net migration figures were too high and needed to come down.
He set no specific target in Thursday’s milestones speech.
Starmer told reporters: “We will restore order to the immigration system, reducing net migration from the record high levels seen in recent years by reforming our approach to the labour market, addressing skills shortages here in the UK and clamping down on employers who exploit the visa system.”
