Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson has accused the Conservatives of offering a return to failed politics after shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith used the party’s conference in Birmingham to promise a “bonfire” of regulation, including the abolition of the Environment Agency and Natural England.
Phillipson said Kemi Badenoch had once again shown an “appalling lack of judgement” by putting Griffith in charge of the party’s economic and housing plans. Labour describes him as a co-author of Liz Truss’s 2022 mini-Budget, an account of his role that Griffith disputes.
“Trusting the co-author of Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-Budget with Tory plans on the economy and housing is like asking an arsonist to run the fire service,” she said.
Phillipson: ‘They completely failed at every turn’
“The Tories had 14 years in government to grow our economy and help people get on the housing ladder, but they completely failed at every turn,” Phillipson said.
She argued that the Conservatives wanted to take the country back to a politics that had let so many people down over the past 40 years.
What the Conservatives are proposing
Griffith, who accepted on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a “bonfire of regulations” was a fair summary of his plans, wants the functions of the Environment Agency and Natural England folded into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The package would also scrap low-carbon requirements for new homes, replace section 106 agreements and the community infrastructure levy with a single developer charge, and abolish extended producer responsibility rules for packaging.
The Conservatives claim the housing changes could cut the cost of a new home by as much as £50,000. That figure is the party’s own estimate rather than an independently assessed saving for buyers.
Labour rejects the claim that environmental bodies must be abolished to get Britain building. Since 1 October, Natural England has focused its bespoke planning advice on complex and high-risk cases, with standard guidance covering routine applications, while keeping its legal duties to protect nature.
The proposals also raise questions about how flood defence, pollution control and nature protection would be delivered if two specialist regulators were absorbed into a Whitehall department.
For Phillipson, the dividing line is clear: Labour argues that growth comes from investment, planning reform and partnership with business, while the Conservatives are asking voters to forget their record in office and trust the same promises again.
