Most prime ministers would respond to these local elections with the same old excuses. They’d blame low turnout or say this is just what happens “mid-term”. I’m not going to do that. My response is simple: I get it.

In the West of England, Tyneside and Doncaster, people once again backed our promise of change. But there is much, much more to do. When we came into government last year, I said there was no magic wand that would fix things overnight and that we would only get there through hard graft.

I knew it would take time because I have lived it. From my wife’s work and my many visits to my late brother in hospital, I knew just how much work it would take to undo the damage that had been done to the NHS. I didn’t need someone else to tell me what worrying about paying the bills feels like, because it happened to my family. Uncontrolled immigration, sewage in rivers, failing local services: I feel the same sharp edge of fury at the way our country has been let down as people who voted on Thursday night do.

• Local election 2025 results in maps and chartsBut I also know that the British public are far smarter than Westminster gives them credit for. People want this country turned around. But they also know that it needs proper tending to: that the business of sorting it out will take time and work, not more empty promises.Nearly a year into this government, there is real, tangible proof that things are finally beginning to go in the right direction. We have had three interest rate cuts. Wages are rising faster than prices. NHS waiting lists have come down six months in a row. Immigration numbers are down. Just last week the boss of the world’s largest investment company said that his confidence in the UK economy is higher than it was a year ago. He — like other investors — is backing those words with real money.Am I satisfied with where we are? Not even close. I am acutely aware that people aren’t yet feeling the benefits. That’s what they told us last night. Until they do, I will wake up every morning determined to go further and faster.That is the difference. I’m not going to navel-gaze or turn inward. I’m going to deliver for you and your family. More money in your pocket, lower NHS waiting lists, lower immigration numbers. The path we are on may not always be smooth — but it will take us to the place we all want.I also know that there will be people who respond to these results by claiming that there is some simple, ideological fix. That if only we did what they say, everything would be sorted overnight. I am afraid this is wrong. Britain has tested to destruction the idea of ripping up fiscal rules or promising unfunded spending. Tell the families paying thousands more on their mortgages or who saw their pay packets eaten up by inflation that what we need is more recklessness with the public finances. Better yet, tell someone on an NHS waiting list, a parent whose child goes to a state school, a driver whose car has been damaged by potholes, a commuter waiting for their delayed train, that we should reverse the decisions we made at the budget last year to invest properly in the public services they all rely on. They will give you short shrift. No: this government’s plan for change is serious, long-term, fully funded — and is going to renew our country.Now is the time to go further and faster in pursuit of that national renewal. We will achieve the economic growth and the reforms that will make this country rich again. We will strip away pointless and self-defeating regulations that hold back businesses and building. We will put more police on the front line, more teachers in classrooms, more doctors and nurses in hospitals. We will improve wages and people’s security at work and create the conditions for new industries and jobs to flourish. We will bring down immigration and give British people the skills they need for the jobs they want. We will make the right investments to bring down energy bills once and for all. We will deliver for you.I am excited at the future facing our country. But I also know we have asked hard things of the British public. Closing the £22 billion black hole and reforming the out-of-control benefits bill left by the previous government wasn’t easy. Part of the reason I have been so angry about the situation we inherited is because I know from my own childhood that it is working people who suffer most when governments lose control. The decisions we have taken were necessary — because the consequences of not doing them would have been appalling. But they were also necessary to create the conditions from which we can rebuild our country.That is the challenge ahead of us and the way we will deliver for you. It is not enough to just tweak a few things here and there, to skirt around the edges while ducking the difficult stuff. I am determined to put this great country back where it belongs — at the very top. My vision of Britain in decades to come is of a proud, independent, prosperous country, able to work with friends and partners across the world from a position of mutual strength. More secure, more self-reliant, more confident. I want us to be tough but fair — to look after the vulnerable in society while providing opportunities for people everywhere. I want the proceeds of our success not just to go to the big cities or the southeast, but to people and places everywhere. I want industries and good, quality jobs to reinvigorate the parts of this country that built it in the first place. In short — I want national renewal for Britain. But that can only be built if people across the country have security back in their lives — and that will only happen if we have a secure economy, a secure health service and secure borders. Change on that scale will take time. But it is my focus, now and every day going forward.The lesson of these elections isn’t that the country needs more politicians’ promises or ideological zealotry. It isn’t that there is some easy solution, as promised by our opponents. It’s that now is the time to crank up the pace on giving people the country they are crying out for.Sir Keir Starmer is the prime minister