Incoming ministers ‘will face UK public services on brink

Institute for Government calls for ‘credible vision’ to tackle crisis engulfing NHS, prisons and local councils

Political parties must be honest with Britain about the immediate crisis of collapsing public services facing the next government, according to a hard-hitting report that lays bare the crisis affecting the NHS, criminal justice system, prisons and local government.

In a direct challenge to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to come clean with voters, the Institute for Government thinktank said most state services are performing worse than at the time of the 2019 general election, and “substantially worse” than when the Conservatives first took office in 2010.

NHS waiting times had been the longest on record, and targets for elective care, A&E and cancer treatment have not been met since 2016. The number of people waiting for more than 12 hours in A&E has tripled to 1.5m since 2019.

People are struggling to see their doctor, despite more appointments being delivered than ever. The numbers of patients per GP had risen by 18% since 2015.

Prisons were at a crisis point. Capacity would be used up shortly after the election, resulting in further early releases of prisoners and delayed court cases. Even so, funding was set to fall by 5.9% each year relative to demand in the next parliament.

In the last six years, there had been six times the number of section 114 (“bankruptcy”) noticed filed by local authorities than in the previous three decades, forcing cuts to key services. Residents in those areas face rising council tax bills and vastly reduced services such as libraries, waste collection and adult and children’s social care.