The Tories have reached for the same old playbook with plans for a bonfire of red tape.
It’s a political classic. Promise to get rid of things people have barely heard of, and supposedly save a bunch of cash. The thing is, ripping up red tape sounds great until you look at what it’s actually designed to protect.
Top Tory Andrew Griffith wants to “streamline” regulations that do quite important things – like protect the environment and compel big developers to provide community projects in areas where they want to build.
One of the big plans is to axe net zero requirements on housebuilding, an industry with major carbon emissions. Perhaps he’s forgotten the summer of record heatwaves and wildfires destroying homes in Britain.
Fitting houses with solar panels and more efficient heating systems can also lower bills and create jobs in the supply chain.
He also wants to scrap rules that oblige developers to build a share of affordable housing in big projects, and support demands for local services like schools and GP surgeries. These would be replaced with a “one stop” levy on developers, details of which are not clear.
Another plan is to ditch the Environment Agency, which plays a crucial role in trying to stop sewage being dumped in Britain’s rivers and waterways. It also manages flood risks and prosecutes illegal polluters.
Natural England will also be axed, with both bodies taken back into the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The Tories also want to expand Heathrow Airport – something they abandoned during the coalition years, and then later spent years consulting on.
We’ve been here before. David Cameron’s coalition government pursued an aggressive agenda of deregulation, including a rule where if one new policy was introduced, two would be cut or changed.
The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire said the anti-red tape drive “dominated” thinking in government that “even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded.”
The Tories seem to have conveniently forgotten the legacy of their time in office, where they failed to get the economy firing and to speed up housebuilding.
They’re desperately trying to get attention as the party continues to flounder in the polls, two years on from their worst ever general election defeat.
Despite the cheerful mood in Birmingham, Kemi Badenoch’s increasing personal popularity is not translating over to the party.
There’s still so much baggage attached to the tainted Tory brand and voters have other options, with Reform squeezing them on the right and the Lib Dems on the left.
In reality, the Tories can say what they like but they didn’t fix any of this when they were in power.