Public calls for Government action amid economic struggles and failing services

Labour came to power last year determined to turn around a flatlining economy and struggling public services. These objectives reflect many voters’ concerns. However, as the government has discovered in recent months, its proposed solutions to these difficulties do not always meet with voters’ approval. This is a key finding of a chapter entitled, ‘Repairing Britain: Attitudes towards the economy, taxation and public services’, published today by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) as part of the latest British Social Attitudes (BSA) report.

Economic worries

• A record 26% say they are struggling to live on their current income, up from 16% before the pandemic. The proportion who say they are living comfortably has fallen over the same period from 50% to a record low of 35%
• In 2023, when the cost-of-living crisis was at its height, a record 70% said their incomes had not kept pace with prices. That figure has since only slipped slightly to 67%, still well above the pre-pandemic record high of 55%

Pandemic hits satisfaction with public services 

• Satisfaction with the health service has plummeted in the wake of the pandemic. A record 59% are now dissatisfied with the NHS, compared with just 25% in 2019. Only 21% are satisfied, down from 60% in 2019
• As many as 53% are dissatisfied with the provision of social care, compared with 37% in 2019. Only 13% are satisfied
• 82% believe providing health care for the sick is definitely a government responsibility

Attitudes towards taxation and spending

• Despite a marked increase in spending on health during the last Parliament, 69% still believe the government spends too little on the NHS. The figure is even higher (73%) among those who are dissatisfied with the health service
• Following significant increases in taxation in the last Parliament, as many as 61% believe that taxes for those on low incomes are too high, up nine points on 2016
• Meanwhile, 44% believe that taxes for those on middle incomes are too high, up 13 points over the same period
• However, 44% believe that taxes for those on high incomes are too low, up 10 points in 2016
• There has seemingly been some reaction against the increase in the tax burden. 40% now support increasing taxes and spending more on health, education, and social benefits, down from 55% in early 2023. However, this is still above the 31% support reported in 2010, when taxes were a lower proportion of GDP than they are now
• 58% of those who voted Labour in 2024 are in favour of increasing taxes to spend more on health, education and social benefits

Welfare

• Support for more spending on disability benefits has fallen to a record low of 45%, down 22 points on 2017
• While 29% believe that it is ‘too easy’ for people to be able to claim disability benefit, just as many, 29%, feel it is ‘too difficult’. Only 11% believe that spending on disability benefits should be reduced
• 38% believe that the government should pay for everyone’s social care, while 36% say there should be a lifetime cap on how much anyone has to pay

Building infrastructure

• While 43% support the building of new nuclear power stations, 27% are opposed
• 44% support making it easier to build ‘pylons that carry electricity wires across the countryside’, while 22% are opposed
• The proportion who support building more homes in their local area has fallen from 57% in 2018 to 41% now. Conversely, 32% are opposed, up from 23% in 2018

Brexit and economic impact

• 69% believe the economy is worse off as a result of leaving the EU
• 85% of those who voted Labour in 2024 say they would vote to rejoin the EU

Professor Sir John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) says: “The public are well aware of Britain’s problems – not least those of a failing health service and an economy in which many are struggling to make ends meet. Yet rather than turning their back on the state, for the most part, the public are still inclined to look to government to provide solutions. And while they feel that most people on low and middle incomes are already paying enough tax, they suspect that some of the better off could pay more. As a result, while voters have perhaps now begun to react against the marked increase in the size of the state during the last Parliament, that reaction is still, it seems, relatively muted – and especially so among those who voted Labour.

“Yet this does not mean that voters are necessarily ready to back the various remedies that Labour have been offering to overcome the country’s difficulties. They are not necessarily prepared to embrace a dash for more infrastructure building, including perhaps not least anything that appears in their own backyard. Tightening up on disability benefits is potentially controversial too, as the government has already discovered. The political difficulty with these policies is there are potentially identifiable winners and losers, and it is often the losers who shout the loudest. Pursuing economic growth rather than tax rises as the route out of fiscal constraint will not necessarily be the easier path for Labour to tread.”