Demos Chief Executive responds to Keir Starmer’s speech in Manchester

Labour’s promise to form a government that can prevent problems as well as fix them is to be welcomed. The state is stuck in a cycle of servicing growing numbers of people living with ill health, struggling with their working lives and suffering from an array of social problems.

This will take radically different approaches to public services and investment. We have set out one way this can be achieved: a Universal Work Service. Replacing the fragmented system of job centres, skills and career advice and opening them up to everyone would create a service to release people’s ambitions to move on in life and help the economy to grow.

We would urge Labour to think differently about how it invests to prevent problems in people’s lives. Too often investment is thought about as big infrastructure projects. Our greatest asset as a nation is our people. We need to invest in people’s lives to create stronger communities and a stronger workforce more able to adapt to future challenges and promote economic growth.