Our newly developed Missions Index assesses how local areas across England are performing against the Labour Government’s key missions. It reveals significant regional disparities and identifies where targeted investment is most urgently needed to turn the Government’s ambitions into reality.
As we anticipate the details of the upcoming budget, the key question is whether the government will commit to a genuinely place-based approach to closing these gaps. The opportunity is clear: by aligning national ambitions with local strengths and challenges, and by investing where it is needed most, the government can create a more equitable foundation for progress, more opportunities for all. This is about unlocking the full potential of every community, ensuring that no area is left behind as the Government works towards delivering on its bold vision for the country. The choice now lies in whether ambition will translate into real, place-based impact.
From our work on the Missions Index, two critical issues have come to light that could significantly impact the success of the Labour Government’s mission-based approach.
There is a clear need for more defined and refined mission outputs. As we developed the index, we found ourselves interpreting the missions and what they are meant to achieve, revealing a lack of clarity that could hinder effective implementation. For these missions to be truly impactful, it is essential that they have clear, measurable goals that provide a shared understanding and direction for local authorities.
The importance of robust data at the local level cannot be overstated. As W. Edwards Deming said, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” Reliable, granular data is crucial not only for making informed decisions tailored to local contexts but also for ensuring accountability and tracking progress against the missions. Without high-quality data, local authorities are left to navigate without the insights needed to drive meaningful change.
Addressing these issues — clarifying mission outputs and enhancing local data capabilities — will be key to transforming Labour’s missions from ambitious goals into actionable and measurable successes. By investing in these areas, the government can empower local authorities to better align with national objectives and drive progress in a way that is both targeted and transparent.
A missions-based policy approach provides a powerful framework for addressing complex societal challenges by setting clear, ambitious goals that inspire innovation and coordinated action.
Kickstart economic growth: to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 – with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off. (Growth)
Make Britain a clean energy superpower: to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero. (Green)
Take back our streets: by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels. (Crime)
Break down barriers to opportunity: by reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain. (Opportunity)
Build an NHS fit for the future: that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer. (Health)
While the focus of the five missions is being set by Whitehall, there is significant opportunity for local government to drive each of them forward. Local councils are well-placed given that they hold the local levers to combat the national challenges facing the new Government, whether it is building more affordable homes, reducing homelessness, improving care for adults and children or boosting inclusive growth. Central government clearly recognise this role, as evidenced by their emphasis on partnership working and bottom-up action.
Encouragingly, there has already been heightened activity to act on the transfer of powers from Whitehall to local leaders since Labour came to power. On the fifth day in office the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, met with regional mayors to discuss the programme of devolution. Additionally, letters were sent to all upper tier authorities currently without a devolution deal to come forward with proposed new devolution settlements and to submit local growth plans. The devolution bill formed was a central element of the King’s Speech and promises to help speed up the process of transferring powers to local authorities were evidenced by action to progress deals for Lancashire, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, and Devon and Torbay. Taken together, these actions indicate that the new Government has already recognised the urgent need to restore agency from the ground up.
Click through the maps below to see a summary of performance across the country. Please note that the darker shaded areas indicate areas with a greater level of need.
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Key objectives and metrics behind the Missions Index
Download this table to see a breakdown of the metrics we have used for each mission.
Our Missions Index is structured around Labour's five key missions. For each mission, we have carefully considered the key objectives and outcomes that Labour are trying to achieve, leveraging a variety of publicly available data sources to identify the most suitable metrics.
After collating all the data we generated a normalised score for each of the five missions and then aggregated these to create an overall composite score that provides an indication of overall levels of need. Each local authority is then ranked based on its composite score and assigned a position out of 307 (Isles of Scilly and City of London are excluded due to data availability issues). For instance, if a local authority ranks within the top 20% it would indicate that it falls within the top 20% most in need in the country. This scoring method enables us to assess performance relative to every other local authority.
It is important to note that there are limitations to consider. For example, there is poor alignment between NHS organisational data and the policy initiatives that Labour have outlined and due to the availability of data at the local authority level it is sometimes challenging to find a meaningful metric that aligns with the objective. Consequently, in some cases we have utilised proxies to meet the objective. In a few instances we have also had to resort to slightly larger spatial levels (e.g. Counties or Community Safety Partnership areas) and apply that data to the constituent districts. However, this has only been as a last resort and we have made every effort to use the most granular level of data with the most recent temporal coverage wherever possible.
At a local level, we view the Index as a catalyst for identifying how local and regional governments can align their expenditure and delivery priorities more effectively to fit Labour's national priorities and make the case for investment locally.
With this in mind we have also compared the Growth Index (relating to the Kick Start Economic Growth Mission) to ONS’s estimated regional total identifiable expenditure on economic affairs (sourced from HM Treasury public expenditure data) adjusted by population for each local authority.
As can be seen in the scatter chart, there is currently no discernible relationship between need and spend in a given area. In part this will be because much public spend is driven by population size, and therefore larger areas will receive more spend. However, this does not negate the fact that a large number of areas with significant identified economic need currently have lower levels of public spend on economic affairs.
Focusing in on the ‘high-need, low-spend areas’ reveals that of 48 authorities in this quadrant only one is in London, two are in the East of England, three in the South East, six in the South West, six in the North East, eight in the West Midlands, nine in Yorkshire and the Humber, and 13 in the North West.
Consideration of these dynamics – and others like them – will need to inform future funding decisions if mission-led government is to be a reality.
Please note that chart excludes the results for Birmingham and Shire Districts due to the range of expenditure within the full cohort of local authorities.
The expenditure data is an estimate based on UK identifiable expenditure on services by function per head (2022/23) which has been apportioned to local authorities by population size. Source: HM Treasury, 2023 and Census 2021
The construction of the Missions Index marks one of the first attempts to align local authority level metrics with the Government's mission-led objectives. We understand that this is not perfect, but it provides the first crucial step to establish a data framework through which need at a local level can be understood and contextualised. We welcome feedback at this early stage to help shape and refine the index so that it meets the needs of local government and effectively supports decision-making.
The variation in levels of need, both between regions and within regions, revealed through our analysis also serves as a stark reminder of the entrenched disparities that still exist across the country and will no doubt be a clear focus in the upcoming Budget. This also highlights the necessity for a deep dive into each of the five missions to unravel what is driving need in greater detail and to identify the measures local authorities have at their disposal to influence. Over the coming months we plan to undertake further analysis to delve into each mission in more detail and will be sharing the findings of those soon.
The challenge of finding suitable metrics has also highlighted the need for clarity on targets and metrics, which will be key to transforming Labour’s missions from ambitious goals into actionable and measurable successes. As we near the Autumn Budget, it will be interesting to see if some of these gaps can be addressed. Additionally, a number of key questions remain unanswered: How will cross-government collaboration be facilitated to accomplish the missions? What assurances can be given regarding funding and flexibility to make investment decisions that genuinely address local needs? Will there be expanded opportunities for partnership working, whether with businesses or the public sector, to advance the missions? While we shouldn’t expect quick answers to any of these, we look forward to finding out what the new Government is thinking on how it can deliver its mission-driven ambition.
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