Performance tracker 2026: Cross-service analysis
Think tank: Institute for Government
Author(s): Stuart Hoddinott
October 15, 2026
This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government analyses the Government’s public services performance in 2026.
Despite progress in some areas, Starmer’s reform agenda did not live up to expectations and leaves Burnham with difficult choices. The ‘honeymoon period’ enjoyed by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the summer of 2024 was possibly the shortest lived of any recent government – certainly one coming off the back of a landslide general election win. Walking into their new departments, ministers were confronted with a raft of problems inherited from their Conservative predecessors.
Starmer and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, raised taxes in the 2024 autumn budget to fund larger settlements than the Conservatives’ spending plans. That additional funding, combined with effective, targeted policy, meant that performance in some services – general practice and the police – has improved since the election.
As a result, Starmer’s successor Andy Burnham, prime minister since July 2026, has a slightly better inheritance on public services than his predecessor.
