Sean Houlston: National preparedness and resilience is everyone’s responsibility

Sean Houlston is Head of Membership at the National Federation of Builders and Conservative Parliamentary Candidate in the Runcorn and Helsby 2025 By-election and in Widnes and Halewood at the 2024 General Election.

Since the government has a strange obsession with deciding policy in response to which Netflix shows come out (see Adolescence), here’s one they should actually take seriously – House of Dynamite.

It is fiction, yes, but the premise is grounded in a simple truth. In a world with rising global tensions, disruptive technologies and unpredictable threats, complacency is dangerous. Yet too often the national conversation around security has drifted toward shallow culture war narratives, such as the bizarre claim that white boys are supposedly the number one threat to the United Kingdom.

That debate did nothing to strengthen our resilience.

It distracted us from what really matters.

The United Kingdom learned some bitter lessons during the pandemic. While frontline workers showed bravery and innovation, our institutions stumbled. Think of the confusion over PPE supply chains, the delayed ramp-up of testing capacity, or the lack of proper data systems that could track cases in real time. Think of telecommunications networks not ready for a surge in remote working. Schools scrambling to deliver digital learning without proper infrastructure. When the pressure came, the machinery of the state did not perform as it should.

Critics like to say that government did not have a plan. They were right in many respects, but this is not because of one political party over another. The deeper issue is that, since the end of the Cold War, the UK allowed national resilience planning to fade. We assumed peace and stability were permanent. National plans existed, then gathered dust. Preparedness became a PowerPoint exercise rather than a national culture.

British stoicism was mistaken for British readiness.

A conservative approach to national resilience recognises a truth that the left too often ignores: the state alone cannot carry the burden. Government must lead, but being prepared is everyone’s responsibility.

That means businesses with robust continuity plans that are drilled, not merely drafted. It means councils mapping local risks and identifying vulnerable residents before an emergency. It means schools and colleges with safeguarding, digital capacity and evacuation planning embedded in everyday practice. It means GP surgeries and the wider NHS rehearsing surge response protocols regularly and realistically.

And crucially, it means individuals and families having a plan. Do you know the quickest way out of your area if communications fail. Do you have basic supplies at home to manage disruption. Do you know how you would check on neighbours if services collapse. Resilience is not only physical preparedness. It is mental resilience too, engrained in our national psyche. If people are mentally prepared for emergencies, they are far better equipped to take action when disruption comes.

To build a resilient nation, we need infrastructure that can withstand crisis. That includes secure communications, emergency stockpiles, resilient transport and functioning local services. It also means restoring trust in the institutions that hold the country together. Resilience must become a shared civic duty. It is the ultimate levelling up because it protects every community from the worst.

When the Conservatives return to government, we should make a National Resilience Strategy a defining mission. That means establishing a dedicated Minister for National Resilience with clear authority across departments, rebuilding the Civil Contingencies framework that has been allowed to erode in recent years, and providing families with the clear guidance they need to prepare for emergencies. It means incentivising businesses and councils to invest in readiness rather than gamble on hope, and embedding resilience education across our schools and community programmes so preparedness becomes a natural part of British life.

The next Conservative government must put responsibility where it belongs. Not solely in Whitehall. Not relegated to obscure committees. But at the very heart of how we govern and how we live.

Our adversaries are preparing. So must we.

Because when the next shock arrives, and it will, the question will not simply be whether the government is ready. It will be whether the nation is ready. All of us.