THE public overwhelmingly supports moves to make it a legal must for the government to consider future generations in its policy-making, a new report has found. 

A survey of 1,000 adults found that more than two in three wanted the government to do more to plan and prepare for long-term threats.

Lord John Bird, founder of the Big Issue magazine, said the polling backed his Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, which is going through Parliament.

If passed into law, he said yesterday, it would help the government in preventing problems including the climate crisis, poverty and pandemics from happening, as well as dealing with emergencies.

Most of those surveyed said they wanted reforms that would ensure lessons are learned from Covid-19.

The Bill, which has passed its second reading in the Lords, is being supported by MPs from several political parties.

Lord Bird said: “We now have hard evidence that the public are crying out for there to be long-term thinking embedded in UK policy-making.

“The Bill will put an end to short-term policies, which only serve to bite us back later.”