Charles White-Thomson is a senior colleague at the Adam Smith Institute and former CEO of online trading companies. He explained how he had prepared a system to measure the government of his own targets – and how it was.
After last year’s election, I argue that Britain needs to start thinking like a business if you want to return to its track.
I support the commitment of the Prime Minister and Chancellor to place growth at the top of their priority list with measurable goals and difficult deadlines.
Their support for clear targets makes sense. Most people instinctively understand the difference between unclear ambition and the target bound time embedded in someone’s name.
The Minister called him ‘the government led by the mission.’ Every promise will be tracked, measured and assessed in public.
The private sector has a name for this form of analysis – main performance indicators. As a former CEO of an online trading company, this is something I know.
The KPI system, which ranks performance from red to green, is a good way to increase focus and accountability. The traffic light system triggers a debate, because there is so little space to be hidden – ‘Satan is really in detail.’
Unfortunately, one year entering their time in the office, the government seems to have left its commitment to this kind of transparency. And, a year later, the reality looks somewhat different.
Struggle to give: After the victory of their election, the Prime Minister and Chancellor placed growth at the top of their priority list with a measurable goal and a difficult deadline
While many targets have been set-and some are really ambitious, there are still too many destinations of five years, too much out, and too little accountability.
Even worse, a mission board that is praised, which should have examined shipping, has disappeared to ether.
He said something about modern politics that even in the digital age, when almost all metrics can be tracked in real time, voters still have to explore many websites to see whether the promises made for them are stored.
16 of our KPIs that track what happened
In business, this will not be tolerated. You cannot do responsibility. You can’t shrug your shoulders and blame the economic weather when your target is blinking red. You certainly can’t hide numbers.
That is why, in the absence of an official scoreboard, the Adam Smith Institute and I have compiled myself. We have rolled out our sleeves and collected 16 main government performance indicators of manifesto, speeches and policy documents.
When the target is set for more than five years, we have proced out to see where they have to stand up after 12 months. If relevant, we have started our analysis on day 1 of their government.
And, to make things that are good and simple, we do what will be done good board, color code. Green for success. Amber if they are close (or faced with original mitigation factors). Red due to failure.
I must emphasize that this type of analysis is not emotional, focus on performance 12 months before.
Performance analysis versus KPI does not try to justify or praise this government’s decision – only to ask for accountability.
How is the workforce?
Of the 16 KPIS, 6 green and 7 are red, with the rest mixed or adequate lack of data.
What is worrying, the Reds includes many main economic drivers, which you can see above.
The average monthly growth is only 0.09 percent since July 2024, far below the level required to achieve the annual growth goal of 2.5 percent in 2029.
What’s more, inflation, which was promised by the government to stabilize 2%, also increased, with inflation last month reaching 3.4 percent.
Of course, slow growth is almost not surprising when you take into account the government’s decision to increase the contribution of national insurance and cancel the non-dom regime.
Seeing the remaining KPI portfolio, there are several bright spots – especially those related to expenditure.
The government, for its credit, is on the track to fulfill the proposal to provide a new NHS promise, employ more mental health staff and is likely to increase defense expenditure to 2.5 percent of GDP.
But, this raises broader questions about the overall strategy of the government. What does this mean for our public finances when the government meets its expenditure commitment but does not grow the economy as planned?
Workers must think like business
In the end, the government’s performance against KPI was disappointing. Apart from what someone might think about their mission, they are far from making it happen. And, they struggle to give in the most important places – economic growth.
Minister now needs to focus – really focus – on this KPI.
PM, like a good CEO, needs to be held accountable for the Minister. Ministers who continue to fail to meet their targets need to be replaced. When KPI blinks red, they will not be able to hide behind the round.
The next twelve months will determine this government heritage. Giving this commitment will not look good in the spreadsheet. It can also help restore public confidence and show that, after years of floating, finally there was a successful plan.
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