2024 will be an enormous year for elections and political news. Policymaking will play a part, but there is a risk it could be overshadowed by personalities and party dramas.

This would be a shame, as there are good reasons to believe that the major challenges the UK is facing can be addressed if the thinking and will to act are there. 

Here are ten areas I would love to see prioritised in the UK policy space in 2024.

1.  Health Investment  Is Finally Addressed

Rather than resigning themselves to an endless series of NHS winter crises and short-term funding challenges, policymakers can address the long-term cost of ill health and invest in a strategy to promote wellness rather than solely treating sickness. 

This will not only mean a push on diet, exercise and alcohol, but also a radical embrace of adult vaccination, all justified by a new appreciation of the value of a healthier population to the economy and the nation. 

There are undeniable issues to fix in traditional health provision, but it’s high time the UK took public health seriously as a national strategic asset. 

2. Disruption Comes to  Higher Education 

The value of higher education is enormous, but the existing system is not built to sustain the education of an ever-larger proportion of the population to degree level. 

Serious conversations should start about unbundling the university experience, harnessing technology and reacting to demand by making courses shorter and more intense, or longer and more flexible. 

The way institutions are funded should be part of this conversation, but a debate over how and when we pay for more of the same sort of education risks missing the point: the mix of what is on offer needs to change as well. 

3.  Social Media  Is Discussed as a Public-Health Issue

With the Online Safety Act now in place, policymakers might wait to see the effects of the new regulatory structure before planning next moves. 

But the popular perception that social media is driving mental-health problems, and the growing understanding of the potential economic and social cost of this, mean policy attention around social media should switch from “how do we limit harm” to “how do we address its overall impact”. 

This should go beyond a narrow focus on children and lead to a more general discussion about the effects of platforms’ design and policy choices. 

This area is in urgent need of better data, but it would be a mistake to wait for elusive definitive proof before considering the issues.

4.  Net-Zero  Targets Get Real

There are already signs of a net-zero backlash. Voters who feel the pinch as climate targets become real will find more outlets next year to protest against what they see as arbitrary timelines and unfair distribution of costs. 

Policymakers with few easy options will be tempted to redefine targets, let them slip or abandon them altogether. But postponing action won’t solve the problem; instead, the path to full implementation of net zero should be defined. 

Realism on genuinely achievable plans will be increasingly important; countries that can take the big decisions necessary to actually get there will be much better positioned than those with just a deadline, however eye-catching.

5. Policymakers Maintain Momentum on  Artificial Intelligence (AI), Even If Public Interest Dips

Six months or a year on from the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, it’s reasonable to expect that some commentators will complain that some predictions about the technology have not come true and that the rhetoric has been overblown. 

But over the longer term we are likely to understand that this apparent lull was simply our experience of the early stages of the technology’s exponential upward curve. Big changes are coming, even if they are not evident right now, so policymakers should keep up their work on AI’s deployment and regulation. 

6. Policymakers Think Hard About the Size of the  State and Its Role 

Public spending as a proportion of GDP has been trending upward for a long period, with little sign that the hoped-for improvements in economic performance can outpace demands on the state. Levels of satisfaction with public services are failing to rise in tandem with their cost. 

The reforms necessary to cut the overall tax and borrowing burden while delivering better services might remain challenging, but as a signalling or forcing mechanism, policymakers could begin by setting an overall target and being honest about what is at stake. 

7. There Is Serious Investment in  Anglo-Irish Relations 

The growing likelihood of a Sinn Féin taoiseach in Ireland, with a Sinn Féin first minister in Northern Ireland, means the constitutional question will inevitably rise up the agenda in Irish politics. British policymakers will not be able to avoid any discussion of the future of the union for much longer. 

They can start by concentrating on positive relations between the two countries, both on cross-border issues and more general state-to-state matters, before engaging in good faith on the implications and contours of a border poll. 

That vote has the potential to dominate a decade of politics on both sides of the Irish Sea, so the sooner serious thinking about it begins the better.

8. We Get a New Deal on  Immigration 

Brexit was in part about “control” of immigration. To some people this meant fewer arrivals, but the figures since 2016 suggest that this was not realistic; the economy and public services have relied on a continued inflow of people. 

The challenge of restricting irregular or asylum-seeking arrivals will continue, but for the public to feel they have the “control” they were seeking, they need to believe there is a plan. This means a new framework spelling out the deal for sectors and regions honestly. 

There is political capital available both within business and in communities for leaders who can convince them they have that plan, rather than ignoring the issue.

9.  Public Services  Start to Serve the People

The UK’s public services have come a long way; they are being digitalised, becoming more efficient and in some cases more responsive. But genuinely transformative progress relies on better connecting the many silos of information to deliver proactive support to the people who need it, reducing waste while maximising service value. 

This requires a common infrastructure and identity system, and considerable design work. Many policymakers already recognise that the technology to enable transformation exists; now what is needed is the policy commitment. 

10. We Begin to Tackle the Really, Really  Difficult Issues 

There is growing consensus among policymakers on all sides that several issues exist on which action should already have been taken. 

Council tax remains based on an inefficient, badly outdated set of valuations. The state pension seems low for those who depend on it but generous to those with other income, and expensive for everyone. Building new homes, railways, energy infrastructure or public assets is lengthy, expensive and frustrating.

Each of these issues comes with a world of policy and political challenges, but if we’re serious about making the UK a better-governed place – and we should be – now is the moment to start the work.