This book examines the UK’s enduring ‘permacrisis’ - austerity policies, Brexit, climate change, inflation, and the rising cost of living – through the lens of the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a policy continuum.

It demonstrates that the policy continuum cannot be considered as a mere attempt to tackle a range of social and economic issues but also as contributing to forging the permacrisis sui generis. The volume concludes that the government’s policy responses before, during and after the pandemic presented various flaws in governance, leadership and execution, constituting a crucial part of the permacrisis in the UK. Evidencing this through its assessment of policy outcomes in a number of key public policy fields, such as care, education, healthcare, mental health and housing, the book explores the impact of the pandemic on wide-ranging and long-term inequalities and vulnerable populations.

This book is of key interest to scholars and students of British Politics, policy studies and, more broadly, to sociology and social policy.