Prior to the EU referendum, the Government had an ambitious agenda of major projects and policy programmes. Their fate was already less than clear, as government needed to cope with the fallout from the EU referendum. Theresa May’s reshuffle has raised further question marks, as new ministers seek to set out their own agendas and decide what to do with their predecessors’ policies. Emma Norris looks at the potential policy implications.
As we have outlined in previous blogs, there are three categories of policy issue that the new Prime Minister and her government will need to address – policy issues that require immediate decisions; policies and projects that are already underway; and strategies that the Cameron government had promised were coming soon. This is our first analysis of what we know so far in each of these categories:
- Immediate decisions: of the immediate decisions outlined in our table, it is where to add airport capacity that stands out. Chris Grayling, the new Secretary of State for Transport, has already said an urgent decision is needed on whether to push ahead with a third runway at Heathrow. But the possibility of agreeing the Heathrow option looks doubtful with Boris Johnson and Justine Greening, both openly against a third runway at Heathrow, in prominent Cabinet positions. In the past, Theresa May herself has also appeared to speak against the Heathrow option.
- Ongoing policies and projects: there are some policies that Theresa May will want to ensure are being gripped quickly to keep implementation on track. At the top of the list is Universal Credit, which is starting to run more smoothly after a series of serious problems. It will need attention to stay on course and should be at the very top of the to-do list for Damian Green, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
- Of the other ongoing policies and projects, there are questions about the extent to which we will see consistency or change in education, justice and communities and local government.
- On prisons, Michael Gove was a passionate advocate of his courts and prisons reform programme. Liz Truss has been described elsewhere as a ‘natural reformer’ and might continue his work, but also has to see through ongoing implementation of Chris Grayling’s reforms to probation too.
- In education, Justine Greening is rumoured to have a different agenda to her predecessor, but the junior ministerial team remains the same. This might point to a continuation of the longstanding government commitment to academisation and Nicky Morgan’s work on the national funding formula.
- On English devolution, with George Osborne returned to the backbenches, Greg Clark moved to the new Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and James Wharton to the Department for International Development (DfID), the strong team leading this is no longer in place (with the exception of Jim O’Neill). The new Chancellor Philip Hammond and the new Communities Secretary Sajid Javid will need to signal an early commitment to English devolution and rebuild this strong ministerial team if the momentum is to continue.
- Forthcoming strategies: the biggest unknown here is the future of Cameron’s life chances agenda. In her first speech outside Number 10, Theresa May emphasised her commitment to social mobility, which could be how this area is taken forward.
Keep watching for further updates, or follow us on Twitter @instituteforgov.
- Topic
- Policy making