Creating opportunity in the UK

Recently, Sarah Smith MP, Keir Starmer’s ‘Opportunity Mission Champion’, led a broad ranging Industry Forum roundtable on ‘Creating Opportunity in the UK.’ The meeting was hosted by the Chartered Insurance Institute and Industry Forum members and guests were welcomed to the CII City offices in the iconic Walkie Talkie building, by Katherine Kennett, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at CII. The discussion covered the broad ambitions of the Labour government to reverse the stifling of opportunity caused by economic stagnation and austerity policies dating back to the 2008 banking crash. To help achieve this, a primary government mission is to create a virtuous circle of more opportunity leading to increased prosperity and the ability to fund investment in education, training, infrastructure, healthcare, technology and more. The hurdles facing the complete economic turnaround needed are high, bearing in mind the poor financial condition of the economy and the challenging international security situation. Meanwhile, there are inevitable tensions between urgent short-term needs in such as helping young people not in education, employment or training, improving healthcare, social care, and housing, and longer-term investment in areas like early years education and the transition to renewable energy. Nevertheless, sticking to fundamentals including clear objectives, a focus on improving training and skills, and long-term planning is the only approach which can succeed, and is also the approach taken by most successful companies.