27 October 2025
The case for reforming how Britain plans is stronger than ever – but the window is small
Catarina Zuzarte Tully
Intergenerational fairness and long-term thinking are the keys to fiscal responsibility, public trust, and national security
Public trust in the political system is collapsing. As Peter Kellner pointed out recently, the combined support for Labour and the Conservatives now sits below 40% – less than half what it was eight years ago. Behind the numbers lies a deeper story: citizens no longer believe that Britain’s institutions can solve the problems shaping their future.
Acknowledging the breakdown of the intergenerational social contract creates an opportunity. As argued in The Moment for Real Reform, there is a rare alignment across Parliament, government, and the civil service around a single diagnosis: short-termism has become an existential weakness. For the first time in a generation, all three centres of power acknowledge the need to rebuild the state’s capacity to plan for the long term.
A moment of alignment
The Heywood Fellowship on Long-Term National Strategy has explored how the UK can strengthen its strategic planning and foresight. Its proposals respond directly to the 2024 House of Commons Liaison Committee report, which called for a Parliamentary Committee for the Future and a more coherent approach to long-term policymaking.
In September, MPs and peers met in Parliament to test appetite for reform and discuss how to turn this alignment into action. Their discussion identified seven ways to make government visibly more capable of governing for the long term. They called for connecting foresight and data directly to senior decision-making and aligning money and strategy so that Treasury and audit rules reflect longer horizons. They urged longer planning cycles–20-year frameworks with 5-year strategies – and investment in culture and capability, embedding new skills and an intergenerational fairness principle across the civil service.
Equally important were political reforms: creating cross-party oversight through a Committee for the Future, engaging citizens meaningfully so that their concerns about tomorrow are heard and acted on, and linking Westminster to local and civic innovation, where much of Britain’s long-term experimentation already happens in business, academia, and local government.
Citizens disillusioned with Westminster will not be convinced by procedural tweaks. What is needed is visible disruption of business-as-usual – proof that the system can govern differently and co-create solutions that work for people today and tomorrow.
A parliament that looks forward as well as back
The challenge now is to focus on what Parliament can do that would make this shift visible, meaningful and lasting. Three commitments stand out.
First, a cross-party Committee for the Future to deliberate across divides, connect issues, and engage citizens directly on long-term choices. Second, an intergenerational fairness commitment to ensure that decisions today safeguard the interests of the young, the old, and future generations. Third, 20-year strategic planning cycles across government, tied to budgets and informed by citizen dialogue and scenario testing.
Together these reforms would position the UK as a world leader in “future governance” and help Parliament reclaim its role as guardian of the long-term wellbeing of current and future generations.
From alignment to action
Turning alignment into delivery requires two bridges. The first is administrative: a Cabinet Office-No.10 taskforce to pilot and test the Heywood recommendations on live policy issues, using a playbook approach to build capability quickly. The second is political: a coalition of early-adopter MPs and peers – across parties and generations – to champion reform inside Parliament while linking to the energy and innovation already evident across the country.
That energy is real. From young changemakers in the National Strategy for Next Generations to local assemblies in Oxford and Manchester, and networks like Involve and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, civil society is experimenting with new ways to engage citizens in long-term decision-making. The question is whether the centre of government can open up and connect to this wider social activism that builds hopeful futures.
The moment we must not miss
The UK’s political centre-ground faces a choice between proactive reform and reactive crisis. It can use this fleeting alignment to modernise governance for the 21st century – or wait until public frustration and populist anger force change with its iconic chainsaw. The opportunity for reform has never been stronger, but the window will not stay open for long.
Now is the time to act – and to show that Britain’s democracy can think, plan, and deliver for the wellbeing of current generations and those to come.
Catarina Zuzarte Tully is Managing Director of School of International Futures
For the fuller argument, see The Case for Reform Is Stronger Than Ever and to participate in the conversation, please contact cat.tully@soif.org.uk