Tories to pledge scrapping environment agencies and 'all in' for Heathrow third runway

Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith will promise the “most ambitious deregulation project in a generation” in his keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham on Monday, including scrapping Natural England and the Environment Agency and going “all in” for Heathrow’s third runway, according to The Times The Times.

Griffith, promoted to the role by Kemi Badenoch in August, is expected to say the two environmental bodies will be abolished and their key functions brought into Defra. The Tories say Natural England has held up more than 160,000 homes over nutrient pollution concerns, and that major building projects take two and a half years longer to finish in Britain than in comparable countries.

The pledges include scrapping housing regulations that require developers to cut carbon emissions from new homes by up to 75 per cent, withdrawing Britain from the Aarhus convention, which makes it easier for community groups to oppose developments, and simplifying the UK’s “overcomplicated” tax code. The new shadow housing secretary, Katie Lam, will say “anti-growth ideologues can never again hold our country hostage” newsline24.

Heathrow expansion will be the centrepiece: Griffith will say the next Conservative government will “do whatever it takes” to end delays, including possible single-day emergency legislation. “I refuse to accept for a single moment that the country of Brunel and Bazalgette has to sit around waiting until the 2040s to get a third runway built,” he will say The Times. The stance contrasts with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has recently expressed personal scepticism about the runway.