Keir Starmer's Key Promises: Where Does the UK Government Actually Stand?
From NHS waiting times to housebuilding and living standards, we break down how Starmer's government is performing against its own measurable targets.
Keir Starmer's Promises Under the Microscope
Facing mounting pressure from within his own party following significant electoral losses, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his commitment to delivering what he described as "a stronger and fairer Britain." But how does that rhetoric hold up against the hard data?
Back in December 2024, Starmer laid out a series of concrete, measurable milestones covering housing, healthcare, living standards, and policing. With scrutiny intensifying, it is worth examining each commitment in detail.
Housing: An Ambitious Target Still Out of Reach
The government has pledged to deliver 1.5 million safe and decent homes across England before the end of this Parliament in 2029. Progress is tracked through net additional dwellings — essentially the balance between new properties completed or converted and those demolished.
To hit that overall figure, the country would need to average around 300,000 new homes per year. Currently, the delivery rate sits at just over 200,000 annually — a significant shortfall.
Ministers have argued that output was always expected to accelerate in the later years of the Parliament. However, the current rate of delivery is actually lower than what was achieved in the final years of the previous Conservative administration — a fact critics have been quick to highlight.
Adding further complexity, rising construction material costs and higher energy prices — partly driven by the fallout from the Iran war — are placing additional pressure on the sector's ability to scale up.
When Can We Expect Updates?
Official housing figures covering the year to the end of March are published each November. A more timely indicator tracked by BBC Verify monitors new homes receiving their first Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), with data released approximately one month after each quarter ends.
NHS Waiting Times: Slow Progress Toward a Distant Goal
On healthcare, the government's pledge is clear: 92% of patients in England should be seen within 18 weeks of referral by the end of this Parliament.
The most recent NHS data for England, covering February 2026, shows that 62.6% of patients awaiting procedures were seen within that timeframe. When Labour came to power in July 2024, that figure stood at 58.8% — meaning there has been incremental but modest improvement.
The government set an interim milestone of 65% by March 2026, with those results due for release on Thursday 14 May.
Putting the 92% target into historical context: the last time that benchmark was achieved was back in 2015, underscoring just how challenging the road ahead remains.
When Can We Expect Updates?
NHS waiting list data is published approximately six weeks after the end of each month, allowing for relatively regular monitoring of progress.
Living Standards: A Strong Start, but Uncertainty Ahead
Starmer's government has committed to raising living standards across every part of the United Kingdom — measured primarily through real household disposable income (RHDI) per person. This metric reflects what individuals actually retain after accounting for taxes, benefits, and inflation.
Notably, RHDI per person failed to grow between 2019 and 2024 — the first such stagnation since the 1950–51 Parliament, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation.
In the government's first year, 2024–25, RHDI per person rose by a robust 3.1%. However, forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), published in March 2026, paint a more cautious picture — projecting just 0.1% growth for 2025–26, and roughly 0.5% annually over the five years that follow. Those projections were released in the immediate aftermath of the Iran war's outbreak, adding economic uncertainty to an already fragile outlook.
A secondary indicator, GDP per capita, showed 1.1% growth in 2025 after recording zero growth in 2024 — a modest but meaningful signal of economic recovery.
When Can We Expect Updates?
RHDI figures are published around three months after each quarter closes, while GDP per capita data arrives approximately six weeks after each quarter ends.
Policing: A Promise Still Taking Shape
The government has pledged to put 13,000 additional police officers, community support officers (PCSOs), and volunteer special constables into neighbourhood policing roles across England and Wales before Parliament concludes.
The Home Office has yet to provide a detailed breakdown of how those roles will be distributed, confirming only that it will "work with police forces on the mix of roles." Concrete progress data on this pledge remains limited, making it one of the more difficult milestones to independently assess at this stage.
The Bigger Picture
Across housing, health, living standards, and policing, Starmer's government is making incremental headway on some fronts while falling noticeably short on others. With the 2029 Parliamentary deadline still some years away, there remains time to close the gap — but the scale of the challenge, compounded by global economic pressures, means these targets will require considerably more than good intentions to achieve.
