Short term, the single biggest issue is the cost of energy. That's affecting everyone, both private individuals and businesses, but it's affecting those at the bottom of the pyramid disproportionally. It's also both an immediate crisis but also a long-term problem as of course is climate change.
So short-term, subsidies/support for those most in need is essential. Longer term, we need to massively ramp up our investment in renewable energy and also in sources of energy that can meet demand when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining. Nuclear can do that but the timescales to bring new nuclear plants online are extreme, maybe more money could accelerate that. I don't hear much about tidal energy and it seems to me that tidal is the one source of renewable power that is absolutely reliable, predictable and constant. I'm not sure why there isn't far more focus on harnessing tidal energy to be honest.
Hand in hand with energy production we need to address energy consumption. Investing in better insulation, replacing older central heating systems etc seems like a no-brainer. An aggressive campaign to make cycling, walking and public transport far more attractive would also be one of my priorities. It blows my mind that for the majority of journeys I make, the car is invariably cheaper than the train, especially when there are more than one of us.
Finally, investment in industries where recent events have taught us the dangers of being far too reliant on foreign supplies. We all know about oil and gas now, and to a lesser extent staple foods, but we are also suffering major issues with the supply of things like electronic components and microchips and all the products that use them. We've spent decades moving from domestic production, where we were once a global superpower, to foreign imports and that needs to be reversed. Not only to make us more self-sufficient and protect us from geopolitical instability but also to create jobs. Add to that, one of the major reasons domestic producers, of just about anything, struggle to compete with foreign imports is because we have much higher standards for things like workers rights, health & safety, environmental protection etc. Look at it holistically and much of our imports are just us exporting pollution and worker exploitation to other countries. I'm not proposing for a minute we should lower our standards but we should insist that any imported goods are produced to ethical standards at least close to our own. To support the inevitable impact that would have on supply and cost of imported goods I would make massive investment in our agricultural and manufacturing industries and the infrastructures they depend on. The long-standing, predominantly Tory, notion that we can be an economy of desk workers is so flawed it's ridiculous.