New Government Urged to Plan for the Worst as Experts Launch Report on Challenges of National Resilience

Mark Drakeford Reveals the Challenges of Managing a Crisis

Leading policy makers and practitioners have urged the new government to put national resilience at the top of their agenda and on a statutory footing. The recommendations are included in a report; “A Blueprint for Resilience in 2035 Reflections on the Cityforum Conference, London, May 2024” by Stephen Hawker, a former senior member of the UK’s intelligence and security community. It has been published by Cityforum, the senior, expert, policy debating forum. In a Cityforum podcast to discuss the issues raised in the report, Rt Hon Mark Drakeford, the former First Minister of Wales, highlighted in conversation with Sir David Omand the challenges to governments in managing resilience. The discussion is now available as a Cityforum podcast.

In May, some of the UK’s leading policy makers and practitioners met to discuss how to build a broader understanding of national resilience; to identify what could be done now to improve the prospects for a sustainable future; and review how to build capacity to withstand and recover from the anthropogenic (human-causation) and natural shocks. They looked at the roles of government, businesses, civil society, and individuals in taking coherent action to foster a resilient society. The importance of this has recently been highlighted by the impact of War on Europe’s borders, turbulence in the Middle East, China in imperial mode and Covid-19, which challenged the UK’s resilience in key areas.

The supporting podcast explores crisis management, devolution challenges, and long-term governance strategies, with a focus on the practical and the human dimensions of resilience.  The discussion covers the COVID-19 response, UK resilience, volunteer mobilisation, leadership in a crisis, and Wales’s innovative Future Generations Act.

The UK faces geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainties and environmental challenges. The report highlights how critical UK’s ability to adapt and recover is. It is noted that 90% of the infrastructure we rely on now will still be in use by 2035. It is therefore accepted that major changes take time; but small adjustments now could still make a disproportionate difference. In the Podcast Rt Hon Mark Drakeford noted that too often these changes are put off by governments in favour of taking action that can be seen and appreciated now. An action that averts a crisis will probably not even be recognised.

Commenting on the report and the podcast, Stephen Hawker said: “We need the new government to create a vision of what resilience needs to look like by 2035 or 2050. Without broad standards, indicators, rankings, ratings, and quantitative measures it is impossible to track overall progress and to hold those responsible (not just government) to account.”

The report concludes that if the scale of the threats and the extent of vulnerability is as great as feared then we need greater energy, focus and direction on resilience.  Cityforum calls on the new government to:

• Put national resilience at the top of their agenda and on a statutory footing (as suggested by the National Preparedness Commission).
• Undertake a comprehensive assessment of the resilience needed in the UK to provide a baseline for judging change. Government should be required to report annually on progress.
• Develop a national resilience strategy with national goals, focusing on reducing vulnerability as well as preparing for and managing crisis. The strategy needs to be realistic and affordable; and to address human, health and economic as well as system issues and emergency planning. Resilience to be made an integral part of decision-making throughout the economy.

The report and podcast are available free of charge on the Cityforum website. Hugh Morris of Z/Yen will chair a special webinar on the Hawker report on 18th July 2024.  You can register to attend on the Z/Yen website event page.

Cityforum is grateful to the following organisations for their help with the development of the report:

• The National Preparedness Commission (NPC) is an independent and non-political body, whose fundamental objective is to promote policies and actions to help the UK be significantly better prepared to avoid, mitigate, respond to, and recover from major shocks, threats and challenges.
• BT is a systemically important part of the UK’s national connectivity capability and as such enables the broadest range of industries to function and to operate in an efficient manner sharing information with customers, suppliers and internally. The same criticality applies to organisations of state from National Air Traffic (NATS) to UK Policing, Work and Pension, the tax Office, Health services and a myriad of public services around the UK.
• Northrop Grumman UK is a growing British business, wholeheartedly committed to supporting the defence and national security of the United Kingdom and its allies
• Surevine build secure, scalable collaboration environments for the most security conscious organisations.