The Lib Dems recently announced plans for a Department for Growth. I can agree with splitting the Treasury into finance and “strategic economy” departments. But the messaging doesn’t suggest that our party is that keen on challenging (or being seen to challenge) the economic status quo: an economic system which is not working for too many people nor the environment. 

Challenging the economic system does NOT mean de-growth. It does mean challenging and moving away from GDP and growth – regardless of what, where, and for who – being the ultimate aims. “Growth agnostic” is the technical term. But more clearly, it means that it shouldn’t matter if we grow GDP or not, because we measure our success based on what genuinely matters for people and nature. GDP becomes one of many metrics and levers, but not the overarching objective.

What separates us from the Greens in the minds of the many sustainability professionals I meet is that we have vision AND the plans to match. We’re at risk, not least because we have so many current MPs facing the conservative party, of limiting those visions and plans for what society could be. 

There is a (personally conflicting and valid) conversation to be had as to whether stopping Reform, the Conservatives, and their hate-filled divisive politics is so important that we ensure we win, where we currently get our best results, with more cautious politics – enough to make sure there’re enough Lib Dem MPs to group with Labour and the Greens after the next election. 

But for the sake of this article, and in hope that we can do better than cautious, let’s be ambitious enough to manage these conflicts and nail the best of all worlds. Especially as our “Thriving Economy” working group comes up with our new economic policies that will take us into the next general election and might very well make it into some form of government.

I’ve written recently that two things must happen in 2026 to accelerate the move away from GDP and growth-at-all-costs toward judging society based on what matters for people and the environment.

1. Clarity on the end point and principles of a new economic vision: which we have, in so many different forms that I discuss in the articles linked throughout this piece, like Natural Capital (alongside Human and Produced Capital), Doughnut Economics, Missions (I know…), SDGs, GEP, and countless other frameworks, metrics, and philosophies. We need to align. The promising UN High Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP is working on this right now. 
2. A transition plan for that new economic vision: How do we unpick the current economic system from inside itself? And build a step-by-step path from now to that end point. With core principles that allow continuous improvement even after the economy is measured differently. Principles that allow flexibility far beyond a rigid plan. An approach that also wins the political conversation, as well as proving that a new economic approach can work for people and the environment, as well as working within the current system. We have gotten this roadmapping approach right before, for example in our 2024 EU policy and 2019 decarbonization plan. (The latter, alongside the people, was a big reassurance that I’d joined the right party in 2019!)

For a longer read on the indicators, frameworks, philosophy, liberalism, tipping points ahead, communication challenge, see again this Critical Mass for Sustainability piece and broader article library.