Keir Starmer’s new ‘five missions for a better Britain’ start to give some shape to Labour’s campaign for change ahead of the election. Yet the party’s primary offer is still ‘trust us to do much the same, but better.’ After 13 years of Conservative led government, Britain is broken and someone needs to fix it. Labour says it will deliver.

But what makes the party think it can?

The UK is not alone in facing a raft of monumental challenges – falling real wages, stagnating living standards, rapid technological change, the transition to net zero, an ageing population and a health and social care system on its knees. Meeting these challenges would be a tall order at the best of times. But it is made much worse by the State’s dwindling capacity to deliver. Over recent years, and with only a few exceptions, it has almost forgotten how to function – consumed instead by the chaos of Brexit, Covid and the implosion of No.10 Downing Street twice, first under Johnson and then Truss. The commentariat might sigh with relief that Starmer and Sunak are grown-up politicians. But that alone does not equip either leader with the means to deliver real change.

In the medium term, the Budget offered some genuine policies for growth, as I wrote last week. The OBR credited government’s expansion of childcare provision as a move that could boost female labour market participation. CPP argues that it could also increase productivity if women are then better able to take jobs that match their skillsets. But all this now rests on the translation of well-intentioned policy into meaningful delivery of additional childcare places, at a time when the sector is buckling under high energy costs and staff shortages.

Similarly the new trailblazer devolution deals could pave the way for more coordinated, effective spending and investment decisions – spanning transport, planning, housing, health and social care and more. The question is how Greater Manchester and the West Midlands mayoral combined authorities put this groundbreaking opportunity into practice. The limitations of central government often undermine councils, but local government has delivery challenges of its own.

Over the last decade, combined authorities have been given increasing amounts of strategic policy and investment decision making powers – particularly over planning. Yet constituent local authorities retain a veto and can block delivery. Change therefore hinges on effective collaboration between tiers of government, from the most local to the national and new and evolving institutions in between. It also rests on collaboration with the private sector and wider civil society. There are innovative examples of this happening across the UK, as our Inclusive Growth Network will attest, but results are hard won.

If Labour wins the next election, it needs a plan for how it will deliver in government. This must be more than a mission statement. Carefully and rigorously the party needs to thrash out this plan now, both within the broad church of own side and with organisations upon which it will depend to make it happen.

The former Labour leader Tony Blair has described the challenge of delivery as ‘democracy’s efficacy problem.’ “In the end,” he argued in his 2022 Annual Ditchley lecture, “the reason Boris Johnson fell was not simply the outrage around ‘partygate’ but the absence of a plan for Britain’s future. When the authenticity crumbled, there was nothing of substance left to fight for.”

To win, Starmer needs to give voters something to believe in. To govern, he needs to give the nation something to fight for and see through. Delivery is a tough ask, but without change Britain will remain on its course of managed decline.