An Era of High-Hanging Fruit - part 2

Twenty-five radical ideas to inject into today's political conversation.

As discussed in part 1, the past decade has led to an inevitable drying up of political ideation, as all the low-hanging fruit has been taken already. Almost all ‘new’ policy proposals today fall in the buckets of:

1. Micro‑impact – affects only a sliver of the electorate.

2. Incremental tweak – adjusts an existing scheme by 2 %.

3. Zombie idea – dust‑off from the 1970s.

4. Blank‑cheque fix – great headline, £10‑100 billion price tag.

Below is a list of 25 radical ideas that (bar no. 21) can be achieved with a budget of under £1bn in upfront costs.

Remember: the point of this list is not to convince you to add them to your dream manifesto, but to make you think differently about what issues we face, and help you come up with your own fresh ideas: we require high-agency people to enter the political debate, and push our uninspiring politicians to do better.

A - Healthcare and human capital

1. Legalise Kidney Sales

Legalising regulated kidney sales would allow individuals to sell a kidney under strict medical supervision, increasing supply for transplant patients.

In the UK, over 5,000 people are on the transplant waiting list, with around 1,000 dying annually while waiting. NHS England spends roughly £1.5 billion per year on dialysis services. In the United States, the cost is even starker — over $49 billion annually is spent through Medicare alone for patients with kidney failure. Legalising regulated sales could sharply reduce these spiralling costs. Iran — the only country with a regulated kidney market — has eliminated its transplant waiting list while maintaining strong ethical protections. The thought of allowing organ sales is obviously uncomfortable, but the alternative is simple: spending billions to have more deaths.

2. No-Fault Divorces Expansion

No-fault divorce allows either spouse to end a marriage without proving wrongdoing.

In the US, widespread adoption led to significant societal shifts, including faster resolution of divorces and improved mental health outcomes.

Data shows that no-fault divorce laws caused a 30% decrease in domestic violence cases, and couples in no-fault states reported lower rates of depression post-divorce. In the UK, divorces under the old system could take over 12 months to complete, exacerbating emotional harm and legal costs. Streamlining and humanising the process reduces suffering at minimal public cost. Strengthening autonomy in family life builds resilience and social trust — an increasingly scarce resource.

3. Medical Tourism Tax Credit

Introduce a tax credit for British citizens who seek medical treatment abroad for elective or non-urgent care, relieving pressure on NHS waiting lists.

A standard hip replacement costs the NHS around £6,500–£8,000, with typical waits exceeding 18 weeks. In Hungary, private hospitals offer comparable surgeries for £3,500–£5,000, often completed within two to four weeks of inquiry. Hungary has emerged as one of Europe's top medical tourism hubs, especially for dental and orthopaedic procedures, with strong quality and EU-regulated standards. Offering a £1,000–£2,000 tax rebate for verified overseas care would save public money while cutting queues dramatically. Voluntary, financially incentivised medical tourism offers a release valve for chronic NHS bottlenecks without rationing care.

4. National Obesity Service

The National Obesity Service would create a dedicated, opt-in agency offering immediate cash rewards for health milestones, entry into lotteries for major prizes, and professional ongoing support for healthy maintenance.

Obesity costs the NHS over £6 billion annually and the broader UK economy £27 billion in lost productivity. Participants could receive £100–£300 in small, staged payments for verified fat percentage reductions, combined with biannual lotteries offering £50,000–£100,000 prizes for sustained improvements.

Japan provides a real-world model for success. In 2008, Japan implemented the "Metabo Law," requiring companies and local governments to measure employees' waistlines annually. Individuals above a set threshold were referred to weight management programs. Companies with poor collective results faced financial penalties under national insurance cost-sharing rules, creating sharp incentives to support healthier workforces. Over a decade, Japan saw obesity rates fall by 13%, while maintaining one of the world's longest healthy life expectancies. Crucially, the system relied on structured incentives rather than bans or heavy-handed mandates — aligning economic costs directly with health improvement.

Immediate financial incentives align human psychology with public health needs. Even a modest 5% national obesity reduction in the UK could save billions annually while expanding healthy workforce participation. Properly designed, the NOS would more than pay for itself.

5. Student Loan Forgiveness Incentive Programs

Use targeted student loan forgiveness to incentivise public goods and shortage fields, rather than blanket forgiveness.

Options could include:

• STEM teaching: partial loan wipe after 5 years of service

• Public health service: loan wipe for rural doctors, nurses, and dentists

• Housing development and planning: loan wipe for town planners in YIMBY-deprived councils

The US Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program shows mixed success — but properly targeted UK schemes could surgically fix high-value shortages.

Given that only around 25% of UK student loans are fully repaid anyway, structured forgiveness schemes would simply redirect existing bad debts towards public benefit, rather than ballooning costs.

6. Legalise Psychedelics

Legalise and regulate the use of psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA for therapeutic and strictly controlled adult use.

Clinical trials from Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Imperial College London show psilocybin-assisted therapy can be twice as effective for treatment-resistant depression compared to traditional SSRIs. A Phase 2 study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that 71% of patients with major depression showed significant improvement after just two doses of psilocybin therapy. Decriminalisation pilots in Oregon and Colorado report no statistically significant rise in drug-related hospitalisations post-reform. The UK could simultaneously lead a £7 billion emerging psychedelic therapy market while freeing up police and court resources from prosecuting low-risk drug users. Legalisation would realign enforcement priorities toward genuinely harmful trafficking and violence.

B - Justice, Policing and Crime Reform

7. Cash Bounties for Drug Dealers

Now that we have legalised milder drugs: create an anonymous cash reward program offering significant payments for verified information on mid-level dealers still trafficking harmful drugs like methamphetamine, heroin, and synthetic opioids.

The UK spends approximately £1.6 billion annually on drug law enforcement and criminal justice costs related to drug offences. NHS England estimates drug misuse treatment services cost over £600 million per year. In Mexico and parts of the United States, targeted rewards for drug kingpins have fractured cartels by forcing continual internal mistrust, creating major disruptions with minimal direct violence. A similar UK scheme could focus rewards (say, £10,000) on verified arrests and asset seizures of mid-level operators, forcing gangs into costly, unstable vetting spirals. By shifting focus to the most harmful drugs post-psychedelic legalisation, smarter policing could collapse dangerous networks at a fraction of today's traditional cost.

8. Trial an Option of Corporal Punishment

Introduce a trial for opt-in corporal punishment (such as caning) as a sentencing option for certain low-level crimes, where offenders choose between physical punishment and longer incarceration.

Singapore maintains caning for specific offences and boasts one of the lowest crime rates globally, with a violent crime rate of 0.6 incidents per 100,000 people compared to 76 per 100,000 in the UK. The UK currently holds around 87,000 prisoners, with over 66,000 new people entering custody in 2023 alone. If just 5% of new prisoners in a pilot year chose corporal punishment instead of incarceration — approximately 3,300 people — it would save around £158 million annually based on the current £48,000 per prisoner cost. Prison overcrowding is critical: England and Wales are operating at over 99% capacity, and violent offenders avoiding prison purely due to lack of available space. A tightly monitored pilot could measure recidivism, rehabilitation outcomes, and overall public safety impacts before any broader rollout.

9. Local Crime Budget Voting

Allow citizens in each policing region to vote annually on funding priorities — for example, whether more budget goes to burglary investigations, knife crime, or antisocial behaviour patrols.

Participatory budgeting has already been trialled successfully in Porto Alegre (Brazil), Paris (France), and New York City (USA). In Paris, citizens voted to prioritise safe cycling infrastructure and additional public security cameras in parks. In New York, participatory budgeting helped fund mental health crisis response units instead of expanding traditional policing. A UK policing-focused version would sharply increase trust and legitimacy. Citizens would reallocate a limited portion of the policing budget, focusing democratic energy on local issues without threatening core stability.

10. Professional Jurors

Establish a parallel professional juror track: retired teachers, engineers, accountants, doctors, and other specialists serving on complex trials.

Many serious fraud, medical negligence, or cybercrime cases overwhelm average jurors, risking miscarriages of justice. Professional jurors could be vetted for conflicts of interest and paid modest retainers, preserving impartiality and quality. Crucially, pulling millions of working hours from the active economy for standard jury service causes huge hidden costs — the Centre for Justice Innovation estimates jury service costs the UK economy approximately £2 billion annually in lost productivity. Allowing complex trials to use voluntary professionals would save businesses from losing skilled workers to long trials while radically improving legal decision-making integrity.

11. Prisoner-to-Entrepreneur Pilot

Pilot a program modelled after The Last Mile in the US, which trains prisoners in coding, entrepreneurship, and small business management before release.

The Last Mile achieved recidivism rates under 7% among graduates, compared to national US averages over 60%. Employment is the strongest predictor of post-release success, but low-skill labour markets often discriminate heavily against ex-offenders. In the UK, 48% of adult prisoners are reconvicted within 12 months of release. Furthermore, only 17% of ex-prisoners are in stable employment after one year. Entrepreneurial training offers a path to self-sufficiency without needing gatekeepers. Even a small pilot (500 prisoners) could yield major savings in reoffending and court costs. Building businesses is cheaper — and far smarter — than endlessly building more prisons.

12. 10-Strikes-And-You're-Out Sentencing System

Introduce a clear, cumulative sentencing system where serious repeat offenders face mandatory long-term prison sentences after ten separate convictions.

Cumulative penalty systems have been trialled globally:

• Netherlands: a "Persistent Offenders Act" in 2004 allowed longer mandatory detention after multiple serious convictions.

• Singapore: multiple-strike rules apply for drug trafficking and serious violence.

• In England and Wales: As of 2023, over 12,000 offenders had more than 25 previous convictions or cautions but remained free. Around 1,000 offenders had 50+ prior convictions and continued reoffending. 45% of released prisoners are reconvicted within 12 months.

Financially, the cost is enormous: reoffending by ex-prisoners costs the UK economy an estimated £18 billion per year (Ministry of Justice, 2019). A small group of "persistent prolific offenders" causes disproportionately high crime and justice system costs — police time, court time, legal aid, and victim services. Reducing even 10% of this reoffending through targeted cumulative sentencing would save billions over a decade.

A "10-strikes" model would:

• Target only habitual, serious repeat offenders

• Maintain judicial discretion early on

• Lock in serious penalties after a clear threshold

Protecting the public must take precedence over endless, low-consequence cycles of offending — both morally and economically.

C - Innovation and entrepreneurship

13. Founder Fast Lane Visa

Create an automatic 5-year work visa for start-up founders who:

• Incorporate in the UK

• Employ at least three unrelated UK employees continuously for 12 months

Additional incentives:

• 0% corporation tax on the first £750,000 of cumulative profit

• 0% CGT on the first £1 million of founder gains, if IP and HQ remain UK-based for at least five years

The UK’s current Global Talent and Innovator visas are slow and bureaucratic. Meanwhile, other nations are moving fast:

• Canada’s Start-up Visa Program offers direct permanent residency to founders who secure backing from approved organisations.

• France’s French Tech Visa grants 4-year residence permits for founders with minimum funding or turnover thresholds, with minimal red tape.

• Singapore’s EntrePass offers streamlined founder migration for early-stage companies in strategic sectors.

Fast-tracking real builders — not just consultants and investors — could inject serious entrepreneurial energy into the UK economy, especially outside London. Tying tax incentives to tangible hiring and scaling aligns founder incentives perfectly with national growth.

14. Start-up Safety Net

Create a government-backed income protection program for entrepreneurs.

Eligibility:

• Business must generate £5,000–£50,000 annual turnover

• Founders must meet a personal wealth cap (eg. <£100k in assets)

• Support lasts up to two years while scaling

The UK would be backing serious early-stage entrepreneurs — covering minimal living costs to de-risk the jump from employment to start-up building.

Germany’s EXIST program offers similar financial safety nets, leading to start-up survival rates over 70% after 5 years.

By linking support to early business traction, the scheme avoids wasting resources on hobbyists, and directly boosts dynamism. It’s a small investment compared to the cost of stagnant productivity growth.

15. Inheritance-for-Start-ups Swap

Allow heirs to wipe £1 of inheritance tax for every £1 invested in a UK start-up that is:

• Less than 5 years old

• Actively trading

• Headquartered and tax-resident in the UK

• Investment made within 24 months of inheritance

Current UK inheritance tax exemptions encourage farmland hoarding and passive asset preservation — not innovation.

Redirecting even a fraction of the £7 billion+ annual inheritance tax take into early-stage businesses could unleash massive private-sector dynamism.

France runs a similar scheme ("Pacte Dutreil") encouraging investment in family businesses, with major tax advantages tied to active entrepreneurial activity.

This swap would cost less than blanket IHT cuts and directly reward risk-taking investment.

16. Skills Matching and Job Brokerage Programme

Launch a national skills-matching and job brokerage platform inspired by Singapore’s Workforce Singapore and MyCareersFuture systems.

Singapore's model combines AI job-matching, real-time market data, and free personalised career coaching.

Results:

• Median time to find a new job fell by 25% after launch (from 3.8 months to 2.9 months, 2018–2022)

• Over 80% of retrenched workers re-entered employment within 6 months in high-priority sectors

• Users rated job matching satisfaction at over 90% positive after retraining support

In the UK, despite over 1 million vacancies in 2024, long-term unemployment is still stubbornly high — structural, not cyclical.

Better brokerage beats endless passive benefits.

D - Housing, immigration and regional rebalancing

17. Give UK Residency to Foreign Investors in Declining Areas

Offer fast-track UK residency to foreign nationals who invest £100,000 or more into businesses or properties located in officially designated "struggling" towns or former industrial areas.

Unlike the old Tier 1 Investor Visa (which mainly benefited London luxury markets), this scheme would surgically target declining towns.

Australia’s Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme helped redirect nearly 12% of national immigration to rural areas by 2020, boosting local economies and slowing depopulation. Canada's Atlantic Immigration Pilot boasts a retention rate of 90% after one year among newcomers to Atlantic provinces, compared to much lower rates under national programs. Structured properly, the UK could rejuvenate the 150+ "left behind" towns identified by the Centre for Cities. Residency would be granted only after strict proof of real economic activity, not passive asset holding.

18. Regional Work Visas

Create regional work visas that limit initial residence and employment rights to specific geographic areas facing labour shortages or depopulation.

Canada’s Atlantic Immigration Pilot shows that regionally-bound visas dramatically increase the chance of immigrants staying and integrating long-term where they’re most needed. The UK could apply similar models to areas like the North East, parts of Wales, and Scotland’s Highlands. Migrants would receive a clear path to permanent residency after 3–5 years of regional work. This focuses immigration where it genuinely strengthens local economies, rather than overloading London and the South East.

19. Automatic Housing Permission for Approved Designs

Create a national list of pre-approved housing designs, granting automatic planning permission if developers or individuals use them without significant deviation.

Japan operates a "pattern book" system in many areas, allowing rapid private homebuilding with minimal government intervention.

Switzerland uses simplified approval tracks for designs meeting environmental and local aesthetic standards.

In the UK, planning permission currently takes an average of 8–13 months, strangling housing supply.

Automatic approvals for standardised, beautiful designs could:

• Slash wait times

• Encourage quality architecture

• Lower transaction costs for small builders

• Cut development costs by 5–10% based on global studies

This would massively increase the build-out rate without excessive local backlash.

20. Automatic Right to Add Two Storeys

Allow homeowners of 1- and 2-storey buildings to automatically extend upward by up to two additional floors, subject only to basic structural and safety checks.

Australia’s "Code Compliant Developments" system allows by-right upward extensions in cities like Sydney, leading to far faster densification.

The UK’s own experimental "Permitted Development Rights" (PDR) for loft conversions already demonstrate huge demand.

Giving a clear, national right to add height would:

• Radically expand housing supply in suburban areas

• Increase family housing options

• Boost land values for ordinary homeowners, not just developers

The Centre for Cities estimates that allowing even modest suburban densification could unlock up to 2 million new homes without new land take.

This approach balances preserving neighbourhoods’ character while solving the chronic shortage structurally, not cosmetically.

21. Lean-Lanes for HS2 Freight

Lean-lanes would adapt portions of the HS2 high-speed rail infrastructure to support overnight freight movement, not just passengers.

Each freight train can carry the equivalent load of 76 HGV lorries, reducing motorway congestion and emissions dramatically. In Japan, overnight express freight moves parcels and perishables at high speeds on bullet-train tracks, supporting local industry without new infrastructure builds. If HS2 could run even 20 freight trains per night, it would remove the equivalent of 1,500 lorries daily from UK roads. Repurposing night-time slots turns a colossal sunk cost into a productivity and green transport win.

E - miscellaneous

22. Decidim-Style Local Participatory Budgeting

Allocate 5% of local council budgets to be directly decided by local residents through participatory democracy platforms like Decidim.

Decidim, launched in Barcelona, enabled over 40,000 residents to vote on allocating parts of the city's €100 million participatory budget annually.
Projects funded included:

• New public parks in underserved neighbourhoods

• Cycling infrastructure expansion

• Refurbishment of rundown school playgrounds

• Local renewable energy projects

Other cities like Helsinki and Reykjavik have used similar systems to fund mental health programs, urban farming spaces, and youth cultural initiatives.
In the UK, where only 32% of people trust local councils to act in their best interests (ONS Trust Survey 2023), this could rebuild legitimacy.

5% earmarking protects core council functions while making democracy tangible and participatory.

23. Retention of New Teachers: Singapore Model

Launch a reformed teacher training and retention system modelled on Singapore’s success:

• Fully funded Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE)

• Guaranteed job placement

• Career ladder development with funded Masters opportunities

• Service gratuity bonus at Year 3

Singapore achieves over 90% NQT retention at five years, compared to England’s only 67% retention at 5 years.

Fully paid training removes early financial strain, while service bonuses and structured professional development build loyalty. The UK spends billions on recruiting teachers it loses within five years; better retention would save huge sums, improve pupil outcomes, and rebuild professionalism within the sector.

24. Revive the British Overseas Volunteer Corps

Create a modern British equivalent of the Peace Corps: a volunteer service sending trained British citizens abroad for humanitarian, infrastructure, education, and disaster assistance missions.

The original UK volunteer schemes post-World War II (e.g., Voluntary Service Overseas) deployed thousands of British citizens to newly independent nations — before shifting to NGO formats.

America’s Peace Corps today has over 240,000 alumni, serving in over 140 countries, with independent studies showing higher rates of civic engagement, public service careers, and leadership roles among veterans.

Peace Corps returnees also earn 15–20% higher salaries long-term, reflecting leadership and international skills.

A revived British Overseas Volunteer Corps would:

• Build diplomatic goodwill

• Offer young people international leadership experience

• Channel patriotic energy toward peaceful, visible contributions

• Volunteers would serve 1–2 years, with small stipends, basic training, and re-entry support.

In an era of global instability, soft power matters more than ever — and Britain could lead with skills, not just slogans.

25. Privatised Cyberwarfare Militias

Outsource parts of offensive cyber defence to vetted private cybersecurity firms and ethical hacker collectives, working under strict government oversight.

The US’s Department of Defense already contracts "white hat" hacker teams for active cyber defence and red-teaming critical systems.

In a world where cyberattacks cost the UK economy over £27 billion annually, waiting passively for state agencies alone to respond is dangerously slow.

Private militias would focus on pre-emptive disruption: dismantling ransomware networks, countering hostile botnets, and neutralising known state-sponsored threats before attacks succeed.

Rules of engagement would be strictly codified under National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) oversight.

Speed, flexibility, and offensive defence will define 21st-century national security.

Conclusion: The High-Hanging Fruit Is Still There

The 20th century taught us that huge national transformations are possible.
We built welfare states, cured diseases, split the atom, ended empires, landed on the moon.

But somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves that everything worth doing had already been done. We forgot that progress doesn’t end — it just gets harder. The fruit hangs higher.

The policies listed above are not a blueprint. They are not a doctrine.
They are a provocation: proof that fresh thinking is still possible, if we choose it.

The high-hanging fruit is still there. Our politicians have become too lazy to bother to look up, but we can do better.