18 May 2007
The relationship between citizen and government will have to undergo a radical shift if future challenges are to be met, two of Tony Blair's former advisers warned this week.
Speaking at a CIPFA-hosted conference on May 14, Matthew Taylor and Sir Michael Barber, respective former heads of strategy and delivery at Number 10, set out some of the ways public services and citizens would have to adapt to a changing world.
Taylor, now chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, said citizens could no longer rely on the government to provide everything. 'We need to meet our own needs,' he said. 'Take better care of our health, understand the importance of education throughout our lives, prepare for the fact we are going to live for 30 years after retirement.'
Taylor told delegates: 'Genuine empowerment will take a lot of time and effort, but if you believe self-sufficient citizenry is part of the future, you need to be spending time on it.'
Barber admitted that the government's focus on delivery had been a 'rather limiting' approach, adding that it was impossible to tackle problems such as obesity by focusing solely on actions government could take. 'Many things citizens want require active participation in an individual or a community way. Unlocking that new relationship between citizen and government is important,' he said.
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