The UK government has published guidance urging households to “be ready” in the event of a national emergency by stocking up on essentials and signing up for government support.
The new advice that households should ensure they could be self-sufficient for three days in an emergency was posted on a government website on Thursday, along with a written ministerial statement to Parliament by Security Minister Dan Jarvis. He also posted on social media about the campaign.
The UK has been facing threats from bad weather, drought and flooding, as well as AI and hostile activity from Russia and Iran.
The campaign for Britons to step up their preparations had been planned for earlier in the year by Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer. However Mr Burnham delayed the launch due to concerns that it could be seen as an overly pessimistic start to his premiership, Bloomberg reported.
Mr Burnham has spent his first three months in office trying to build optimism across the UK. Policy announcements have focused more on feel-good steps such as bus fare caps and greater devolution than on thorny issues such as defence spending and the threats facing the UK.
But the decision to publish guidance telling households to “take a few simple steps to stay prepared if everyday services are temporarily disrupted” suggests the government is now seeking to build voter awareness of the difficult decisions facing John Healey in his budget next week. The Chancellor is weighing the need to increase defence expenditure against other government spending priorities.
“Individual households can play their role in making sure that they’re more resilient, but government has a role in making sure we’ve got the right defences,” Paymaster General James Murray told Sky on Friday morning. “The big focus, rightly for many years and into the future, is on our military capability, our defensive capability.”
The online checklist advised Britons to stock up on three days’ supply of bottled water and non-perishable foods, as well as hand sanitiser, a torch and batteries, and a radio. It also advised them to keep cash at hand, copies of important documents, and blankets and warm clothing.
“The storms last winter and the wildfires this summer have shown how severe weather events can cause disruption to our everyday lives and impact the services we rely on, like phones, power, water and the internet,” Mr Jarvis said in his statement.
They “are a reminder that we can all play our part to keep ourselves, our loved ones and our communities safe in times of emergency.”
Ministers are under pressure to take significant steps to modernise infrastructure and prepare for the future. Hotter summers and plans for data centre construction are increasing demand for water, but the UK has not built a reservoir since 1992, shortly after the privatisation of the water sector.
Britain has also been warned by leading defence experts that it needs to invest heavily in its military, as it is unprepared to defend itself in the event of a full-scale war.
Mr Healey quit as defence secretary under Mr Starmer in a row over military spending. Now, as Chancellor, he faces the challenge of getting defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.
The way the advice has been rolled out highlights the government’s determination not to overdo the worries, with memories of supermarket shelves being emptied in the early days of the Covid pandemic still relatively fresh. Mr Jarvis said the move “brings the UK into line with many of our European peers who also have the three-day message at the heart of their campaign”.
No government ministers had been scheduled to speak on the launch of the resilience campaign this week. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting only revealed that the launch was imminent when questioned by journalists at the opening of weapons factory in the West Midlands on Thursday.
He said the public needed to be prepared for supply chain disruption caused by “hostile state actors or terrorists” and later added, in an appearance on BBC’s Question Time, that he wanted “people to be alert but not alarmed”.
Speaking in front of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last week, Jim Bligh, corporate affairs director of the British Retail Consortium, said he was concerned about being too alarmist.
“Panic buying is quite easy to generate, particularly if you tell people to buy a particular type of product – they will go out to buy it,” he said. “If the government were to say to you, ‘Go and buy x litres of water,’ would we run out of water? I do not know.”
UK shoppers rushed to stockpile essentials in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic stoked fears of lockdowns and shortages. Toilet paper, pasta and cleaning products vanished from shelves in many stores, forcing supermarkets to step up restocking.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons joined the BRC that month in urging shoppers to buy only what they needed, warning that panic buying risked leaving others without essentials.