An ageing society absorbing an ever-larger proportion of taxpayer funds; a climate that demands costly adaptation even as immediate cost of living pressures squeeze households; deep-rooted regional inequalities but where every choice on redistribution carries sharp trade-offs. These are not problems requiring policy tweaks but seemingly intractable national conundrums that demand collective imagination, big ideas, shared choices and long horizons.

In this lecture, Lucy Smith, Heywood Fellow at the School, will explore what reforms are needed for the UK to practise long-term national strategy-making: to confront the biggest challenges, contest real options, and hold to collective decisions across political cycles. This lecture launches the National Strategy Playbook, a radically practical framework to enable government, politics, business and society to act together on the nation’s future.

The lecture is followed by a Q&A moderated by Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations.

A drinks reception will follow the event.