In a society of fair chances matched by fair rules, people also need to know that they can have a fair say. People increasingly demand greater control over the services they receive and input into decisions that affect their lives.

They want the same sort of control in their dealings with government that they experience in other parts of their life. Many of the biggest challenges we face, from reducing carbon emissions to tackling obesity to driving up standards at school, can only be addressed through partnership between government, individuals, and communities.

At the same time, the opportunities to create a genuinely empowering and enabling state are greater than at any time in history precisely because of the progress Labour has made. Investment and reform has meant that our public services now meet decent standards, so we can devolve power to local government and cities with greater confidence. Our commitment to reform and change must remain strong so that public services keep up with rising aspirations.

So Labour’s vision for the coming decade is not of an absentee government. And it is not of a traditional bureaucratic government. Instead we must spread more power to more people and ensure a fair say for all. Change in the 21st century can only be delivered through an enabling government that knows its role and knows its limits.

Responding to what people need today
In our public services this means responding to people’s rising aspirations that services should be shaped by them, giving them choices where that is sensible, available when they need them, and tailored to meeting their own personal needs. We need to improve access to services, as we have done through extended schools and extended GP opening hours. We need to ensure that patients and parents have a real say over services, for example, through jointly agreed care plans in health and more regular feedback of personalised information on pupil progress for parents. And as we continue to reform our public services we need to draw more on the expertise and commitment of professionals, including in voluntary sector organisations.

It also means a step-change in the use of information as a tool for empowering public service users. Ten years ago it was seen as a major innovation that government collected information on schools or local authorities. But now new technologies provide the opportunity to improve the availability and timeliness of far more information, giving citizens and communities greater direct power than before. Whether it is real-time patient feed-back in the NHS or local crime maps, Labour’s future reform agenda will rest on the transparent provision of information which will empower citizens.

In our local communities this means empowering local people to hold local services, like policing, to account. Labour’s neighbourhood policing, where we have set clear minimum standards for every local area, will transform the ability of local people to shape policing priorities. It means a step-change in the use of petitions to help local people get things done. Looking ahead, on other issues such as licensing laws, control over public spaces like parks and town centres and the mix of shops on the local high street, people should never feel powerless. We must use approaches like local petitions to ensure that local people have a stronger say in how their local area develops.

Democratic and Constitutional change
Nationally it means seeing through constitutional reform that increases the trust that people have in politics. That is why Labour will implement a wholly or mainly elected House of Lords; why we have empowered Parliament to hold the executive to account; and why we will bring forward plans for a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Constitutional reform is not just about the grand issues that populate textbooks: it is about protecting the individual against the state and about balancing liberty and security. It is also about overcoming the daily frustrations of public life, the concerns people have about local authority rubbish collection, the ability of parents to get schools admission authorities to listen to what is best for their children. It is about getting support to tackle anti-social behaviour. It is about tackling the discrimination and prejudice many of our people still face.

The constitution of the union has always evolved to meet the modern needs and rising hopes of our people as it did most notably when we created the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly within the United Kingdom. We’re proud of having created devolution and it works well. We’re committed to devolution as a way of meeting the needs and hopes of different nations within the Union. The challenges that face all of the nations within the Union keep changing. That is why we along with others have set up the Calman commission in Scotland to examine how best to develop devolution in a way that meets their needs and strengthens the Union.

In Northern Ireland, devolved government has been restored since May 2007, and in partnership with the Irish government and the devolved Northern Irish executive we are working towards completing the final steps on the path to full devolution of power according to the St Andrews Agreement.

Where power is located, how it is distributed, and how it can be exercised, go to the heart of the most elemental human aspiration: for each of us, to live our lives fulfilled, peacefully, free from arbitrary interference and control by others.

This always matters but when times are good it is sometimes easy to forget the importance of the equitable distribution of power. When most are prospering, concerns about whether people have adequate control over their lives may slip into the background. But when times are tougher, and people feel more vulnerable and threatened, then a sense that they do not have adequate control over their own life, and that others are controlling it for them, creates risks for the peace, stability, and cohesion of society. We saw this over and over again in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

That is why we will drive forward our programme of constitutional reform, in the face of Conservative indifference and hostility, so that it delivers the fairest possible distribution of power in our society.