Charles White-Thomson is a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute and the former CEO of an online trading company. He explains how he has set up a system to measure the government against its own targets – and how it is doing.
After last year’s election, I argued Britain needs to start thinking like a business if it wants to get back on track.
I supported the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s commitment to put growth at the top of their priority list with measurable objectives and hard deadlines.
Their support for clear targets made a good deal of sense. Most people instinctively understand the difference between a vague ambition and a time bound target pinned to someone’s name.
Ministers call it ‘mission-led government.’ Every pledge would be tracked, measured and judged in public.
The private sector has a name for this form of analysis – the Key Performance Indicator. As a former CEO of an online trading company, this is something I’m more than familiar with.
The KPI system, which ranks performance from red to green, is a good way to enhance focus and accountability. The traffic light system triggers debate, because there’s so little room to hide – the ‘devil really is in the detail.’
Sadly, one year into their time in office, the government seems to have abandoned its commitment to this kind of transparency. And, a year later, reality looks rather different.
Struggling to deliver: After their election victory the Prime Minister and Chancellor put growth at the top of their priority list with measurable objectives and hard deadlines
Whilst many targets have been set – and some are genuinely ambitious, there are still too many five-year goals, too many get-outs, and too little accountability.
Worse still, the much-touted Mission Boards, which were supposed to scrutinise delivery, have vanished into the ether.
It says something about modern politics that even in the digital age, when almost any metric can be tracked in real time, the electorate still has to surf multiple websites to see if the promises made to them are being kept.
Our 16 KPIs that track what’s happening
In a business, this wouldn’t be tolerated. You don’t get to shirk responsibility. You don’t get to shrug and blame the economic weather when your targets flash red. You certainly don’t get to hide the numbers.
That’s why, in the absence of an official scoreboard, the Adam Smith Institute and I have compiled our own. We’ve rolled up our sleeves and collected 16 of the government’s key performance indicators from manifestos, speeches and policy documents.
When the targets were set over five years, we’ve prorated them to see where they should stand after 12 months. Where relevant, we have started our analysis on day 1 of their government.
And, to make things nice and simple, we did what any good board would do, colour-coded them. Green for success. Amber if they were close (or faced genuine mitigating factors). Red for failure.
I should stress that this type of analysis is unemotional, focusing on the performance of the previous 12 months.
This analysis of performance versus KPIs does not seek to justify or commend the decisions of this government – simply to hold them to account.
How is Labour really doing?
Of the 16 KPIs, 6 are green and 7 are red, with the rest being mixed or lacking adequate data.
Worryingly the reds include many of the main economic drivers, which you can see above.
Monthly growth has averaged just 0.09 per cent since July 2024, well below the rate needed to achieve the goal of 2.5 per cent annual growth by 2029.
What’s more, inflation, which the government pledged to stabilise at 2%, has also risen, with last month’s inflation reaching 3.4 per cent.
Of course, sluggish growth is hardly surprising when you factor in the government’s decision to raise National insurance contributions and scrap the non-dom regime.
Looking at the rest of the KPI portfolio, there are a few bright spots – particularly relating to spending.
The government, to its credit, is on track to meet its proposals on delivering new NHS appointments, hiring more mental health staff and is likely to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
But, this raises wider questions about the government’s overall strategy. What does this mean for our public finances when the government is meeting its spending commitments but not growing the economy as planned?
Labour should think like a business
In the end, the government’s performance against these KPIs has been disappointing. Regardless of what one might think of their mission, they’re far from making it a reality. And, they’re struggling to deliver where it matters most – economic growth.
Ministers now need to focus – really focus – on these KPIs.
The PM, like any good CEO will need to hold his Ministers to account. Ministers who persistently fail to meet their targets will need to be replaced. When the KPI flashes red, they won’t be able to hide behind the spin.
The next twelve months will define this government’s legacy. Delivering on these commitments won’t just look good on a spreadsheet. It could also help restore public confidence and show that, after years of drift, there is finally a plan that works.
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