Quality of Life Challenge

The Quality of Life Policy Group was set up by David Cameron to recommend policies to the Shadow Cabinet. Our Report contains detailed recommendations for consideration by the Conservative frontbench, the Conservative Party more widely, and the large number of people outside who are looking for solutions that break away from current political restrictions.

It is not for us to define Conservative policy but what we have proposed in the report sits firmly in the Tory tradition. Since its inception the Conservative Party has recognised that, if it is to uphold its continuing principles in a changing world, those principles have to be applied in a contemporary way so that they are relevant to a new generation.

The remit of the Group was to consider holistically the issues of the built environment; rural life; food, farming, fishing and the marine environment; transport; energy; waste; and water. All these are fundamentally affected by two significant concerns: Climate change and social unease. Climate change is the most significant material threat to our future, while the degree to which our society has become dysfunctional, inhibits our ability to succeed as a nation.

We cannot go on as we are, ignoring the effects of the world’s misuse of its resources while, at the same time, pretending that we have a society at ease with itself. The Policy Group has become convinced that radical change is essential. More of the same is not an option. What follows provides the basis for that necessary change.

It is only the beginning. There is much more to be done to refine and extend the proposals which we offer. They are fundamentally Conservative proposals, even though we have drawn on the help and expertise of people of all parties and none. They rely on the strength and power of the market even though they reflect values that reach above and beyond it. They recognise the imperative of prosperity but acknowledge that growth is unsustainable without social justice. They concentrate on a programme for Britain but present that programme in the context of Europe and the wider world.

Our Report is fundamentally optimistic. In the face of the threat from climate change, we believe that Britain is capable of again rising to the challenge of leadership. We shall not be able to do it alone but, without us, it will be difficult for it to be done at all.

However, our optimism is tempered by a realisation of the size of the task and the shortness of the time. Action and urgency are its recurrent themes. Britain has delayed too long. It deserves a
government with the clarity of vision and the strength of purpose to act and to act decisively. We
present these proposals for action in the hope and belief that the next Conservative government will provide the leadership and the delivery that our nation has lacked for a decade.