Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced his six priorities for government in a key "plan for change" speech
The targets include building 1.5 million homes, fixing the NHS and delivering clean power by 2030
He also pledges higher living standards, safer streets and ensuring a record number of five-year-olds enter school "ready to learn"
Starmer adds that an "almighty challenge" lies ahead for the government to achieve the targets
Analysis: The PM clearly hopes that by articulating these priorities, the state will now be able to prioritise them, writes Henry Zeffman
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says the plans contain "nothing concrete on immigration", adding that the government "doesn’t know what it is doing"
Will the government be able to hit its new targets? BBC Verify has examined Starmer's goals
During his speech earlier, Starmer turned his attention to civil servants, saying that too many are "comfortable" in what he describes as the "tepid bath of managed decline".
He describes a culture across Whitehall and Westminster where there is a sense you shouldn't try anything too ambitious and only "set targets that will happen anyway".
Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent
The PM says the government wants to see “higher living standards in every region of the country as we target the highest sustained growth in the G7.”
That is a step away from the previous aim to see the “highest growth in the G7 over consecutive years by the end of the parliament” - which many economists said was unrealistic; not least as it depended on the plight of others.
Targeting living standards across the country, in terms of looking at real disposable income, is widely seen as a good aim – but on current official forecasts, we’re expected to see the second slowest improvement on a national basis, around 0.5% a year, of any parliament, partly reflecting slower projected wage growth on the back of the Budget’s National Insurance rise.
The prime minister seems to suggest living standards will be measured against whether voters “feel better off”.
But actual regional statistics are currently published only after a lag of over a year; gauging success with any confidence against that milestone ahead of the next election may not be feasible.
Another question for the PM, this time on his pledge to raise living standards. What is his target for increasing disposable income?
Living standards went down under the last government, Starmer says, and "stabilising the economy is the essential first step" to reverse that.
He says he wants to drive up living standards, and the "people know when they're better off".
Starmer faces another question from journalists on immigration, about how he will get it down.
Starmer says they will drive down both "legal and illegal" immigration. He says the Rwanda scheme wasted money and "it didn't work".
He says the only way to get it to work is to arrest the gangs behind it - "that is how you do it".
Starmer refuses, however, to put "an arbitrary number" on immigration figures and caps.
The government will do it in a "serious" way, not using "arbitrary caps" or "gimmicks", he says.
Starmer is again asked about immigration.
Sky News's Beth Rigby puts to him that immigration was a big component of his election campaign, but it's not mentioned in his top six milestones. Do you fear failure or is it not a priority?
Starmer answers by reiterating that there are "foundational things" that government must do, such as ensure border security.
He adds that we must stop people crossing in boats across the English Channel, saying that migration statistics this week were "shocking" and it is the duty of government to tackle this.
The prime minister has started taking questions from members of the press, starting with our own political editor Chris Mason, who asks if tackling immigration is a priority or not.
Immigration is mentioned in the document for change, but is not one of the top six "milestones" or targets listed today.
Starmer responds by saying security of borders is a basic and foundational principle that the government must and will deliver on.
He says the missions sit on top of that, and that they're a change the government will bring about on top of the basics.
Faisal Islam
Economics editor
The prime minister announces a big new target for 150 infrastructure projects as well as 1.5 million new homes.
The existing housing target was already looking a bit iffy, because house builders were delivering nowhere near these numbers.
Sir Keir Starmer called it “a clear message to the Nimbys (not in my backyard), blockers and naysayers,” citing the example of no new reservoirs being built in decades and £100m spent on an HS2 tunnel to protect one bat colony.
Downing Street has been wanting to lean in to this argument for some time.
There has been a substantial increase in the major projects budget announced at the Autumn Budget, that is yet to be allocated.
In order to be effective however, this will be politically controversial. Pylons, housing, wind farms, reservoirs, and rail lines, often take decades, and cost far more than other similar countries.
If this is successful or not, the evidence should be very visible everywhere within this Parliament.
Starmer again recaps what he says people of Britain want - such as more opportunities for children, a fit NHS, safer streets, making the country strong and working people being better off.
He says these aren't "unreasonable hopes", but he understands "how little faith there is, from working people most of all."
"We will stay the course" and rebuild Britain, the prime minister says.
He finishes his speech and begins taking questions from the journalists in the room.
Starmer goes on to talk about policing - and specifically his target to deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, special constables and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).
He says this will provide relief for millions of people scared to walk the streets.
He goes on to talk about the planning system, saying that the blockage is so big it stops this country building roads, grid connections and more.
He says our infrastructure has long freeloaded off the geniuses off the past, giving the example that no reservoir has been built in 40 years.
He announces a new target for 150 major infrastructure projects, on top of his plan to build 1.5 million new homes.
Starmer says the government will not put up with this "nonsense" any more.
Starmer reiterates that change is coming, adding that that's what today's plan means.
The prime minister says productivity in the public sector is 26% lower than this time last year, and 8.5% lower than just before the pandemic.
He says this would not be acceptable in any other sector.
But he says won't subsidise this gap with "ever-rising taxes" on the British people.
Faisal Islam
Economics editor
While we still wait for the nerdy detail of which living standards target the prime minister is setting for his government, he has said the aim will be to “raise living standards in every part of the United Kingdom, so working people have more money in their pocket as we aim to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7”.
The Labour manifesto mission promised to “kickstart economic growth to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7”.
This is a recalibration of language suggesting that topping the league table is now more of a background “aim” than a precise metric that is a promise to deliver. The promise is now about living standards.
How exacting that is depended on the detail about to be delivered.
Starmer says the "job of these milestones is to take our country forward".
It is "not about making the government look good," he says, but instead driving reform through the public sector.
These milestones are risky, Starmer adds, but repeats again that it is "country first, party second".
He says the government faces "an almighty challenge" to achieve its "milestones" by the end of this parliament.
Referring to previous politicians' complaints about the civil service, Starmer says "I don't think there's a swamp to be drained here," but that Whitehall has forgotten that you "choose change not because it's easy, but because it's hard".
Three more pledges from Starmer
4 - On education Starmer promises to ensure a record proportion of five-year-olds starting school "ready to learn" to give children "the best start in life". This is a new pledge by the PM.
5 - His fifth point mentions his government's target of delivering clean power by 2030. Starmer says this is needed to make the country more secure in the face of threats by "tyrants like Putin".
6 - NHS waiting lists is the final pledge, says Starmer - an 18-week target from referral to treatment finally met
Starmer starts outlining his pledges.
1 - He starts with promising higher living standards, reiterating that Labour has pledged to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7, and saying they will work to ensure working people have more money in their pockets.
He says this is so the burden of the cost-of-living crisis is no longer intruding on them.
2 - He then outlines targets around housing, reiterating the promise to build 1.5 million new homes, saying they will work so home ownership doesn't move further away from working families.
3 - He then talks of policing and crime, pledging to have more police on the streets.
The plan for change begins with strong foundations, economic stability, national and border security, he says.
On immigration, he talks about statistics from last week, which shows net migration into the UK hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
This government will "reduce immigration - legal and illegal" he says, and they aren't "hanging around".
They are clearing the asylum backlog by processing "thousands more claims" than when they came to office, he says - and returns of foreign national offenders are up 29%, which is on track to be the highest overall number of returns for six years, Starmer says.
"That is what dealing with the problem seriously looks like."
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
There have been some questions from Sir Keir Starmer’s critics both within and outside the Labour Party, about how these six measurable milestones fit in with the five missions, which were first unveiled in February 2023, or the six first steps to change, brought out as recently as May.
The prime minister is clearly sensitive to this criticism, dedicating a passage of the speech to declaring that his strategy has “remained constant” throughout.
He said that those questioning whether they had “heard these missions before” were guilty of Westminster thinking.
It is also striking that Starmer is being explicit – in a speech broadcast live nationally – that there are two audiences for his speech.
Yes, one is members of the public. But, the other is “Whitehall”, or in other words the civil service.
The prime minister clearly hopes that by clearly articulating (or re-articulating, some would say) these priorities, the state will now be able to prioritise them.
We've just spotted some of the ministers gathered to hear the PM speak - including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty ImagesStarmer says there's "no investment in our public services without difficult decisions".
The path for change is long and hard, he adds, pledging that "we will stick to it".
"Country first, party second." he says.
Starmer says some will say that we've heard the missions he's about to announce before, but in Westminster "they always say that".
Starmer says that all the British people have asked for is a government that can finally match its ambition with a credible plan for unlocking its potential.
He says the purpose of the government is to make services and the economy work for working people.
Reform is a big job, he says, and talks of the £22bn black hole which the government says they inherited from the previous government.
He say he doesn't want this to be an excuse, and expects to be judged on his ability to deal with the problem.
Starmer continues, and says he wants to show the people of Britain that "their country can still do great things".
He moves onto the NHS, and say "millions owe everything to it."
He says he would "not be here without the NHS" and people "behind every single door" in the country have a similar story.
Starmer says it is "losing the trust of the British public" and has "record dissatisfaction".
It's broken, Starmer adds, but not "beyond repair."
