So what change would people like to see in this country - given people seem to want change and are fed up with the pace of change?

[cakeorwine]

That seems to be the message from people in the recent elections.

Clearly immigration - controlled or uncontrolled is an issue for some / many people and the impact on local communities

But apart from that, what other changes do people want to see that are not being delivered?

I know that housing is a massive issue. Affordable places to live
Job opportunities in a local area
People being able to stay where they live instead of being forced to relocate
NHS waiting times, seeing a GP quickly, seeing a dentist who is NHS
Cost of living - life is expensive for many people. How can life be made more affordable for people who are struggling?
Run down town centres, too much shoplifting and a feeling that people are getting away with crime

What changes do you want to see happening?

Change to the tax system so people have incentive to earn more money and not lose more than half to tax. We need to keep wealth in the country and currently have the biggest exodus of millionaires. Those left over to pay higher taxea are usually the ones who have climbed the career ladder through grit and perhaps a bit of luck but they stay there due to their performance. They should be rewarded and not penalised

Wage stagnation is a huge issue. Jobs 25 years ago still pay the same despite the cost of living going up.

Affordable housing

NHS - more funding, less bureaucracy- waiting times down.

Also addressing the main thing - a
more radical and bold government who recognise the scale of these issues
and genuinely want to improve peoples lives.

Agree to changes in tax. The cost of living and the thresholds being frozen mean most people are essentially getting a pay cut every year.

Stop crippling businesses. The NI increase and NMW increase is destroying hospitality.

Allowing councils to systematically increase council tax by almost 5% every year - but with less services. Collect our bins more, our recycling points back in public areas. Get rid of the waste of space police crime commissioners.

I'm sick of working hard to try and better my life and actually not having any more because it just gets taken off me.

People who are working hard and doing everything “right” don’t want to feel poor or part of a precariate any more.

People really feel that success governments have fucked them over in terms of the social contract- and this is the backlash. If they are never going to even be ‘comfortable’ then, by Christ, they’re going to be angry.

Politicians being accountable: ie, going to prison for corruption, when they fiddle their expenses, or tell massive lies to the electorate, to Parliament, to the monarch. With great power comes great responsibility. We lesser mortals can be sacked for fiddling our expenses, or jailed for lying about who was driving a speeding car, yet criminals such as Blair and Johnson seem to reap massive rewards for telling huge lies.

The government need to grow a backbone (Labour AND Tory) they're completely spineless, they get walked all over by the utility companies who are frankly an extortion mafia in a not very convincing disguise.
They don't do anything that's right for our country, small businesses are closing in the thousands because they can't pay the energy bills. The government do nothing about it.
The water companies are pumping sewage into our rivers and the sea, the government just rolls on it's back and says "please tickle my tummy" instead of doing something.
We're run for the benefit of multinational companies who store their profits off shore and the circle of bankers and financial parasites.

Ordinary working people are treated like an inconvenience and are looked on in total contempt by Labour, the Greens and Tory. Reform at least pretend to listen. Kier Starmer has been the biggest disappointment in my life.

We need to start paying tax at much lower incomes - as for most countries in Europe.

We need to pay less out in benefits, so public services at a council level are about proper public services, not SEND and social care.

Invest in public transport to improve health, reduce congestion and improve productivity.

Get rid of a huge amount of decision making- I’m involved in a major public sector infrastructure project and it’s shocking how much extra work and delays are in the project for pointless reasons, and how little accountability there is for timelines.

More police presence on the streets. I’ve seen people openly selling drugs very near to a police station.

More government funding for childcare.

Happy to pay more taxes for better services.

I’m concerned at how ‘lawless’ this country feels at times. There seems to be no consistency in sentencing, I often read about lenient sentences for people who have attacked others, killed people with their cars etc and often, the punishment doesn’t feel as if it fits the crime. Awful animal abuse cases where the abuser gets no jail time & just banned from keeping pets for a few years. Shop theft, car theft, I could go on. I don’t live in a terribly dangerous area but I just don’t feel as if our laws are strong enough.

We need an elected second chamber, not just seats given away to paid-up pals of the MPs.

Exactly. While we work for a living, the government and their rich mates keep having a massive laugh at our expense. The contract between government and people was ripped up and spat on, when Blair took office, and spent the next ten years running the Blair Rich Project. A few examples are:

• Blair taking his children on holiday to the Seychelles in term-time, when they should have been at school, at the same time as his government was "cracking down" on parents who did this, at the same time as Blair said "we're all middle class". Why aren't we all taking term-time holidays in exotic locations, then?
• Blair awarding himself a huge pay rise the day after being re-elected.
• Blair's illegal war, based on a massive lie, for which he has still not faced any consequences.
• The expenses scandal.
• Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister: it was obvious he was the spawn of Satan.
• Partygate.
• Liz Truss.

Inequality is the biggest issue for me. I think a lot of the other problems wouldn't really be seen as issues if we had equality and a good standard of living for everyone.
For example, I live in an area with a high number of immigrants but it's not a problem because people are comfortable and happy with their lives. Communities mix and get on well. No tensions. Obviously I understand there's no such harmony when people are struggling, can't afford to pay the bills and feed their families but believe immigrants are getting preferential treatment.
Related to inequality is the need to lift millions of families out of poverty. We have a hideous class system in this country which we think is normal. It's not.
My second desire is to really invest in and improve the NHS.
My third desire is big investment in public services.
Rich people need to pay more taxes for all of this to happen.

Immigration- not a problem in my area, so can’t comment on this.

stop taxing jobs!! The ni increase is an insane idea!! For better to add a penny on income tax.

stop using the tax / benefit system to disincentivise people from earning more.

structure the benefit / tax system to make people accountable for their choices. Eg Vastly overweight - lose weight before nhs elective treatments. Mess round at school - send to alternative provision + compulsory parental classes (or face loss of benefits). More apprenticeships and routes for the less academic to stop disengagement in the first place.

stop nhs spending on ivf. Invest in nursing homes / recovery hospitals so that urgent care beds can be freed up.

more support for send but greater rigour in diagnosis. Acknowledge that poor parenting can result in behaviour that looks like send . Acknowledge that there is a huge range within the autism diagnosis. Don’t use send as an excuse for poor behaviour.

invest in public transport

all school food to be cooked from scratch and free - throw money at this

get people off benefits

some form of national service (not necessarily military) for late teens with exemptions for those taking professional qualifications

restart sure start

instead of forcing closure of private schools learn from and make more use of their good practice. Follow the Australian model where private schools are supported by the government and more accessible to more people.

All this is expensive- short term pain but long term gain. Not something that will happen in our 4 year system.

make sure that people understand that ‘Reform’ is a private company not a normal political party - that it is a grift for Farage and his chums.

And, controversially, pay politicians a lot more. We need the best people - that have a massive responsibility. At the moment we’ve too many career politicians who have little experience of the real world. We need experienced people who have already had a career. They need to be paid enough so that they don’t need to make loads of expenses claims and employ family members etc. We want each constituency election to be a competition between the brightest and best - not a bunch of ropey party insiders.

I agree with a lot of the above posts but Reform are definitely not the party to deliver these changes. They don’t have the expertise and experience. When people in the Councils where they have taken control realise potholes are still not going to be fixed any quicker or bins emptied more efficiently then they’ll be out.

A review on University costs vs. benefits. Do they need to modernise or some close, what degrees are 'worth it' for society and young people?
Cutting down fraud (student finance).

Fundamental to everything is exorbitant house prices. It's hard to do anything when the bulk of your earnings goes towards a mortgage

Address tax evasion - including those who come here to money launder via dodgy fake businesses.

Address dying town centres by repurposing them into living spaces with the appropriate infrastructure to support a residential population. Get rid of the charity shops and money laundering places.

Address immigration. People are highlighting problems and being ignored. Deport all criminals and people who are clearly here to commit crime.

Provide help for youngsters and young adults who have been ignored by successive governments and who now need help to get into work and find somewhere to live. Provide proper training, not merely expecting them to go to university and end up with a huge debt.

Address gangs, antisocial behaviour and violence on the streets and in cities.

Housing. People can't live with their parents forever. Young people need a chance to establish themselves in their own homes. Introduce rent controls so LLs can't keep ripping people off.

It’s mostly the cost of living crisis.

if people felt they were earning more each year and had hope things would not be so bad.

they are worried because costs keep going up and it makes them worried they won’t cope long term.

lerhaps op should have asked “how to address with the budget available “ because otherwise it’s fairyland

so address the NHS on its knees by charging for missed appointments, and whack a health tax on all food that is UPF , all junk food - treat junk like cigarettes

addrsss the housing crisis by whack up inheritance tax and closing trust loopholes and use the money to build council homes that can not be sold off. Bring in strict rent controls. Guarantee mortgages to anyone who has been paying rent at or above their proposed mortgage repayments for over a year

There's always room for improvements in everything sure, but just to note...

Most people voted for long established parties. Most of the councils remain under control of 2 main parties. Most people DID NOT VOTE FOR CHANGE.

Appeasing minority groups might mean making majority unhappy.
Accommodations to minorities should be made on fairness principles not on impulse.

Costs go up so wages go up so costs go up
how do you break the cycle ?

Andalltheworld I agree re upfs but we have to be careful with IHT and rent control that it doesn’t create other consequences- a disincentive to earn more, progress career etc. And rent caps increasing air b and bs / second homes at the cost of long term rentals.

This. MPs who actually care about the electorate and are not just in it for what they can get. In my Politics class at school I was taught that MPs have four areas of responsibility: to their electorate, their party, their country and themselves. Recently the last seems to have totally eclipsed the other three.