The UK’s problems are more connected than we think but solutions must focus on people first – Inside track

This government has had an unenviable first year in office. A perfect storm of economic instability, rising poverty, volatile geopolitics and overstretched public services and the backdrop of an escalating climate crisis, has created a uniquely challenging moment. At the centre of it all are communities. Still recovering from the pandemic and experiencing a cost of living crisis, with still more bill rises, and growing pressures on health and wellbeing.

In the face of so much, a narrow focus on the limited fiscal space has too often framed these challenges as competing priorities. Growth versus climate. National security versus environmental policy. Tackling poverty versus infrastructure. But this masks how deeply connected they are. Climate change, nature degradation and reliance on volatile fossil fuel supply chains are all driving up household bills, from energy to food to water. These rising costs, in turn, compound deprivation, strain local services and hold back economic growth.

Acknowledging the links is a chance to fix more than one problem
The links between the UK’s many challenges are too important to be denied. Especially as their interconnection is a source of major opportunity. By investing in cross cutting solutions that protect and enhance the environment we could simultaneously reduce people’s bills, improve national security and unlock more inclusive, sustainable growth. That would lead to benefits across the government’s agenda: health, social, economic, industrial and environmental.

Nowhere is this challenge more visible than in the recent spikes in water and energy prices. Both have been shaped by global shocks, but they also reflect long standing vulnerabilities in our domestic systems: our reliance on fossil fuels, the unchecked degradation of our nature and underinvestment in our long term resilience.

Energy prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not just because of the war, but because our energy system was exposed to volatile global gas markets. If renewables had dominated our energy system instead in 2022, households could have been sheltered from some of the worst shocks of the cost of living crisis. The same is true for water, with long term underinvestment, the impacts of a changing climate and failure to protect natural systems, like rivers, wetlands and forests, all affecting supply and pushing up bills to an unprecedented level.

Renewable energy developments can benefit communities
Rather than viewing challenges we face in isolation, we should be designing integrated solutions that work together. Investing in renewable energy, for example, not only helps reduce emissions and combat climate change, but also strengthens national energy security, generates good jobs and shields communities from price volatility. Similarly expanding reuse and repair also has potential to cut costs for households, enhance resource security and create skilled jobs nationwide.

Embracing interconnected solutions, we can reduce the need for costly, reactive measures and instead create a more robust economic system with sustainability and fairness built in.

To make the most of every pound spent, efforts and investment should work across sectors. One clear example is home insulation, which if delivered well, improves health, delivers jobs, cut costs for consumers and enhances energy security. Although investing in renewable energy, in itself, doesn’t result in well-resourced public services, nor directly contribute to a strong welfare system, what it can do is support and complement broader social infrastructure, by playing its part in an increasingly economically secure future for everyone. Homegrown renewables provide jobs in communities here in the UK, we’re in more control of our power supply and renewable energy is cheaper than oil and gas. As we build more of it, bills will come down.

People need to be at the heart of the solutions
Short sightedness, with poorly designed systems, underinvestment and a lack of strategic leadership has restricted UK growth, created instability and left ordinary people bearing much higher costs than they should. Progress towards climate goals is a transformational opportunity for the economy. Communities should, though, feel the benefits, so they need to put at the heart of the solutions and decisions that affect them.

What that means is visible investment in long term resilience that has direct community benefits, whether that’s insulating homes to cut energy bills, investing in new green industries across the country that create stable, well paid jobs and cheaper public transport to help people access them, or restoring ecosystems to protect communities from flooding. Progress can’t just be couched in lofty abstract aims, like reducing emissions or delivering GDP growth, the positive impact must be felt on people’s lives in tangible ways, through better health, lower costs, more secure work and more connected communities. These crises are a chance to build something better: an economy and society where people and the environment they depend on can thrive together.

Green Alliance has produced a publication outlining areas of UK opportunity for growth and security through a people centred approach the green economy.