Hello, everyone – thank you so much for being here.
Thank you to the National Literacy Trust for bringing us together, and to Jonathan for that lovely introduction.
Thank you to Baroness Rebuck for all your support leading up to today – and for your tireless work boosting the literacy of children across the country.
And thank you to No10 for hosting us here in this lovely location.
I’m so pleased to be here with you. Because, as anyone who knows me will confirm, I’ll take any excuse to talk about reading.
It’s not enough to say I like reading. The only word that fits is love. A deep and lasting love. And a love that found me early in life.
As a child there were books that would cast such a strong spell on me.
So that even when I was forced to put them down, to go to school, or to the shops with my mam,
the characters would step out of the page and follow me down the road, tugging at my sleeve, whispering in my ear, urging me to go home and finish what I’d started.
But as far as I was concerned, there were no books more enchanting than the Narnia series.
That wardrobe wasn’t just a portal for Lucy Pevensie, it was a portal for me too.
For both of us, an escape from the boring constraints of real life, into a world of excitement and possibility.
And that leap into imagination is so valuable for children.
Reading helped me to think creatively, to start imagining the world not as it was but as it could be.
As I got older, I was still drawn to books about young heroes – downtrodden, fighting against the odds.
Especially Pip from Great Expectations.
Inspired by him and so many others – my ideas and values began to form.
Books invite us into the minds of their characters, to share in their hopes and fears, their loves and losses.
Reading makes us more empathetic, more compassionate.
The stories we read as children take us by the hand and guide us towards adulthood.
The best stories stay with us.
Think about the last time you were in a bookshop. You probably browsed through some new books you’d heard good things about.
But I bet you also picked up at least one book that you’d read already. Not to buy it, not to read it again in full, just to skim a passage or two.
To remember how it made you feel.
I do it all the time. I pick up my old favourites – by Zadie Smith or Emily Bronte, David Nicholls or Andrew O’Hagan.
I pick them up and leaf through the pages, catching up with the characters.
This is why physical books have survived into the digital era.
There’s something about a great story that we want to pick up and touch.
To display on our shelves, like art on the wall.
The books I’ve read are a part of me, and I’m sure the books you’ve read are a part of you.
As children and as adults. Reading comes with just so many benefits.
And there’s strong evidence to back it up.
Research shows that reading for pleasure boosts a child’s wellbeing, confidence and ability to learn.
And strong reading skills unlock the whole curriculum.
Not just in English, but the ability to read well is a prerequisite for history, geography, science and more.
Even in maths, you need to be able to read the question to give an answer.
Reading is fundamental to children’s whole education.
But now I’m worried, deeply worried. Because more and more children, and adults too, are missing out.
Evidence from the National Literacy Trust shows that now just 1 in 3 children say they enjoy reading.
This isn’t a blip. It’s part of a longer, larger decline – from 2 in 3 children in 2005.
And there’s a big drop off when children reach Key Stage 3, around 11 years old.
At that age, more and more kids are walking away from reading.
I’m concerned about what this means for their imaginations.
what this means for their learning,
what this means for their growth into curious and creative members of society.
But I just don’t believe this is an innocent change in preferences among our children.
If they say they don’t enjoy reading, it’s because we haven’t done enough to introduce them to it’s magic.
We haven’t done enough to encourage them to stop scrolling and start reading.
This sorry decline is on all of us – and so it’s on all of us to turn it around.
So I am delighted that today we’re announcing a National Year of Reading for 2026.
A shared national movement to make our country a country of readers once again.
So in 2026, I want to see every child, every young person, every adult pick up a book and get lost in its pages.
My department will work with the National Literacy Trust to make 2026 the year when this country rediscovers its love of reading.
And it’ll be for everyone – children and parents, young people and adults, schools and communities.
People of all backgrounds, people in all parts of the country.
We’ll ground the campaign in the best evidence – drawing on what really works.
I’m so grateful that the National Year of Reading has already received funding from the Julia Rausing Trust, Arts Council England, the Booksellers Association, a range of publishers, and many more.
The Very Group will support reading for families with young children in Liverpool.
And the Premier League will mobilise their club community organisations – using the power of football to reach families across the country. We’re all onboard – ready to do our bit to
get the nation reading again.
And that includes us as government. We’ve committed more than £27m to improve reading and writing this year.
We’re planting the seeds in early years education, growing children’s phonics skills and guiding them to fluency throughout primary school.
And we’re going further too – the Unlocking Reading programme will boost reading in every secondary school.
Evidence-based interventions to help support every child to read.
This is a chance to do things differently. It’s a chance for a new start.
We need parents and carers on board too. They need to lead the way.
But the share reading aloud to their children is at an all-time low.
Fewer than half of children younger than four are regularly read to.
So we need to turn that around.
I know that’s not easy. I know that competing with shiny screens and cunning algorithms at the end of a busy day can feel like an uphill battle, not worth fighting.
But we all know deep down that it is worth fighting, because the benefits for our children are huge, because they all deserve the chance to discover new worlds of creativity.
And those early years are just so crucial – for reading, and for so much else.
Today we’re publishing our strategy to give every child the best start in life.
And that means backing parents. Particularly through our new Best Start Family Hubs.
We’ll give parents the support they need, when and where they need it.
Taking the pressure off families, and encouraging parents to spend more time reading with children.
Building on that, the National Year of Reading is a new opportunity for families once again to share in the joy of reading.
And I know how that can bring families closer together.
When I was young my granddad gave me book after book to read – from the days when he would bounce me on his knee, right up to my final year of university.
That was one of the greatest gifts he ever gave me. And it’s a gift that built a lasting bond between us.
To this day, when I pick up a book, when I sink back into a great story – I feel that connection with him, all over again.
And now I’m trying to build that with my own children.
Sitting together, reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Gruffalo or Tracy Beaker.
Those moments are so precious to me.
It’s up to all of us to spread reading across the country.
And for those of you eager to get going – you don’t have to wait until next year.
Because we’re now into the Summer Reading Challenge.
This is an annual initiative, run for free in local libraries, to get primary-school-aged children into reading.
It’s just one example of public libraries bringing the magic of reading to communities across the country – and it’s great to see here with us today the minister with responsibility for
public libraries, Baroness Twycross.
Since the Summer Reading Challenge started 26 years ago, it has helped start 15 million reading journeys.
100,000 new library memberships opened, 13 million books read – last summer alone.
As you leave today, you will each get a Summer Reading Challenge bag, kindly donated by the Reading Agency.
And in that bag, you’ll find a beautiful children’s book from this year’s book list, provided by publishers who are supporting the Challenge.
So please take that book and give it to a child in your life,
a child who you think could most benefit from the power of reading,
and encourage them to head to their local library and take part.
There’s such value in that – especially for the children who rarely cross paths with a good book.
Because how can we expect them to love reading if they don’t have any books within reach.
That’s why this summer, as part of our partnership, the National Literacy Trust will distribute over 72,000 new books to children in areas where child poverty is highest.
So that no child has to miss out on a great story this summer.
Reading should be for everyone to take part in.
From the outside looking in, for those yet to discover its joys, it can seem like a solitary activity.
Lonely even. But it’s anything but.
It’s a collective experience, something for all of us to share in.
Is there any joy quite like giving a book you love to someone important to you – and seeing them love it too?
The National Year of Reading is a chance to do it on a grand scale,
a chance to spread that joy far and wide,
a chance, most importantly of all, to give that precious gift to a whole new generation of readers.
Thank you.