“He’s not the Messiah,” a voice from the Conservative benches heckled during Andy Burnham’s swearing-in.

Quite right. Britain doesn’t need another political saviour. We’ve spent far too long investing our hopes in the next charismatic leader, only to discover that no Prime Minister, however capable, can fix our beleaguered country with a laying on of hands.

If I had 15 minutes with Andy Burnham as he crosses the threshold of Number Ten, I wouldn’t expect him to work miracles to rescue Britain. Instead, I’d ask him to help build a Britain that no longer needs rescuing.

1. Redistribute power

Power has been sucked into Westminster and Whitehall for decades. The UK raises less than 6% of tax revenue locally, against an OECD average of 11%; we are the most fiscally centralised country in the G7, and 62% of local government funding comes from Whitehall grants, more than any comparable economy. Since 2010-11, councils’ core spending power has fallen 18% in real terms per person, a cut of almost £14 billion, hitting deprived areas hardest. Too much hinges on who occupies Number 10, because too little power exists anywhere else.

Democratic renewal should be the foundation of any reforming government: proportional representation (49% public support against 26% for first-past-the-post, spanning party lines), cleaner political funding, and devolution that reaches neighbourhoods and communities, not just city halls. Citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting and community ownership turn politics from something done to people into something done with them. Liberal Democrats have always understood that freedom is the practical power to shape your own life, not merely freedom from interference.

2. Build a resilient Britain

Our politics has been optimised for growth, as though GDP were the purpose of society rather than simply one measure of its success. Growth matters, but it isn’t enough: an economy can grow while communities weaken, services deteriorate and nature declines. Given the challenges ahead, I would propose a different mission: optimise for resilience.

The case is measurable. UK food self-sufficiency has fallen from about 75% in the 1980s to roughly 60% today; we import 46% of our food, a third from countries facing high climate risk. Flooding already costs £2.4 billion a year, projected to rise to £3.6 billion by 2050, with 6 million properties at risk today and 8 million by 2100, though every £1 spent on defences avoids £8 of damage.

Nature fares no better: the UK ranks 189th of 240 countries for biodiversity intactness, the worst in the G7, with species abundance down 19% since 1970. Yet these ecosystems generate an estimated £41 billion a year in services, sitting on a £1.6 trillion asset base.

Resilience means being ready for climate disruption, geopolitical instability and demographic change: resilient communities, food and energy systems less exposed to global shocks, healthy rivers and soils, and public services built to prevent crises rather than merely respond to them.

It offers Britain a hopeful story: we cannot control every global event, but we can become stronger and more adaptable in facing them.

3. Put people and nature at the heart of the economy

Political leadership should ask how we maximise human potential, not simply how fast the economy grows. Since 2008, UK GDP per capita has grown by more than 20%, yet median real wages remain roughly 3% below their pre-crisis level: growth alone doesn’t translate into flourishing unless the economy is designed to share it.

That means investing in education, childcare and lifelong learning, and recognising care, volunteering and community contribution alongside paid work. It also means backing models that keep prosperity local. Preston’s shift to local procurement raised the share of council spending retained in the city from 5% to 19% within four years, worth an extra £74 million circulating in the local economy; UK employee-owned firms are now 8-12% more productive than their peers. Community wealth building, cooperatives and mutuals show that shared prosperity is a practical choice, not a distant ideal.

The real test of political leadership is not managing today’s crises a little better than your predecessor, but leaving behind a country that is more democratic, more resilient and more capable of unlocking human potential within nature’s limits.

Every Prime Minister hopes to solve the problems of their time. The most consequential ones change the conditions in which future generations solve theirs.

* Roz Savage is the Liberal Democrat MP for South Cotswolds. She spoke in Westminster Hall on first-past-the-post on 24 June 2026, and is working on a paper for Compass with a working title of "Power Back to the People: The Future of Liberalism in the Twenty-First Century (2026)".