Tag: Labour Party

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 4 June 2024.

Keir Starmer was appointed Chief Prosecutor and head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2008. He held the post for five years, before becoming leader of the Labour Party in 2020.

The role was a recognition of his work as a lawyer, which included helping to take Vladimir Putin to court for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, and five years as legal advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, helping to bring communities together following the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2014, Keir Starmer received a knighthood for his services to criminal justice.

What did Keir Starmer achieve as Director of Public Prosecutions?

Keir Starmer made the Crown Prosecution Service work for people:

In his first year in the role, he oversaw the first ever UK prosecution of al-Qaeda terrorists.

In 2009, he sought a retrial of terrorists involved in a suicide bombing plot that saw them locked behind bars.

A year later, he brought forward charges against Tory and Labour politicians during the expenses scandal.

In 2012, he worked with Doreen Lawrence to play a crucial role in bringing the racist killers of her son Stephen to justice.

When John and Penny Clough’s daughter Jane was murdered after her killer was released on bail, he worked with them to change the law so that no one had to go through what they did – they’re now close friends.

In 2013, he launched the Victims’ Right to Review, giving victims and bereaved families the right to challenge decisions not to charge suspects or drop cases.

How Keir Starmer has stood up for victims of crime

Keir Starmer reformed the Crown Prosecution Service so that victims were listened to – as a result, conviction rates of sexual offences rose and victims were better supported.

Conservative MPs in the Tory government at the time praised Keir for his work. The then Tory Attorney General, Dominic Greaves, described Keir Starmer as “one of the most successful directors of recent years” and “highly effective and someone who always behaved with great integrity”.

What Labour will do to tackle crime

Under the Conservatives, 90% of crimes now go unsolved. The Tories have hollowed out neighbourhood policing and taken a wrecking ball to the criminal justice system. That means more criminals being let off and more victims being let down.

Labour has a long-term plan to take back our streets, with a first step to crack down on antisocial behaviour by putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the beat.

We will tackle violence against women and girls, prevent youth crime, and rebuild public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system with much-needed reform.

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 11 October 2023.

The NHS faces bankruptcy unless it is reformed, Wes Streeting will warn today.

The Shadow Health Secretary will argue that fundamental reform of the health service is needed if it is to survive another 75 years. He will say that reform will play a bigger part than investment in rebuilding the NHS. Labour plans for reform will secure the future and sustainability of the NHS, providing better service for patients and better value for taxpayers.

The IFS estimates that half of all public sector workers are set to be employed by the NHS by 2036. The proportion of total departmental spending going on health is 42% this year and is forecast to rise.

Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting will say:

“Be in no doubt about the scale of the challenge. In the longer term, the challenge of rising chronic disease, combined with our ageing society, threatens to bankrupt the NHS. 

“Pouring ever-increasing amounts of money into a system that isn’t working is wasteful in every sense.

“A waste of money we don’t have. A waste of time that is running out. A waste of potential, because the NHS has so much going for it.”

Pledging that Labour’s reform agenda will provide a better service for patients while securing better value for taxpayers’ money, Streeting will promise to “turn the NHS on its head”:

“When I look at leading health systems across the world, the fundamental problem with the NHS becomes obvious: we have an NHS that gets to people too late. 

“Labour’s reform agenda will turn the NHS on its head. From a service focused on hospitals to one providing more care in the community, analogue to digital, sickness to prevention.

“A neighbourhood health service as much as a National Health Service, pioneering cutting edge treatment and technology, preventing ill-health, not just treating it. Better for patients, less expensive for taxpayers.

“Achieving our mission will take time, investment, and reform. Reform is even more important than investment.”

He will also set out Labour’s plans to tackle the immediate waiting lists crisis facing the NHS. Today, 7.7 million patients are waiting for treatment, 390,000 of whom have been waiting for more than a year. 1.6 million patients are waiting for tests and scans, with the 6 week waiting times target not hit since 2017. Labour has pledged to:

• Provide 2 million more operations, scans, and appointments a year on evenings and weekends, with £1.1 billion paid to staff in overtime
• Double the number of NHS scanners, buying AI-scanners which work 35% faster, to diagnose patients earlier
• Deliver 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments, recruit more dentist to areas most in need, introduce supervised toothbrushing for 3-5 year-olds, and reform of the NHS dental contract.

The plans will cost £1.6 billion in total and be paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, which allows people living and working in Britain to pay their taxes overseas.

On Labour’s plan to cut waiting lists, Streeting will say:

“A Labour government will take immediate action to cut waiting lists.

“We’ll provide an extra £1.1bn to help the NHS beat the backlog, with extra clinics at evenings and weekends – providing two million more appointments each year.

“Faster treatment for patients. Extra pay for staff. The first step to cut waiting lists and beat the Tory backlog.

“Paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, because patients need treatment more than the wealthiest need a tax break.”

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 11 October 2023.

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson will today unveil a landmark new plan to encourage stronger lifelong numeracy by boosting early intervention and “real world” maths teaching at primary school and a new expert-led review to as part of its plan to drive “high and rising standards in education”.

Phillipson will set out Labour’s plan, which will set children up with basic, practical maths skills to help them achieve at secondary school, at work and throughout life to the party’s conference on Wednesday.

Labour’s maths plan will centre on upskilling primary school teachers who are not maths teachers with the right skills and knowledge to deliver high class maths teaching through the Teacher Training Entitlement, paid for through Labour’s plans to end private schools’ tax breaks.

Labour said it would also task its Curriculum Review with bringing maths to life and directing teachers to show children how numeracy is used in the world around them, such as through household budgeting, currency exchange rates when going on holiday, sports league tables and cookery recipes.

The party said this would include bringing elements of financial literacy into maths teaching, such as using the concept of Individual Savings Accounts to teach about percentages.

Labour’s focus will be on driving improvements at primary level, so they will reform Rishi Sunak’s Maths to 18 working group, so it focuses on primary maths as a first priority and investigates the maths equivalent to phonics.

Labour will also work with nurseries to develop trained ‘Maths Champions’ who can support early learning in childcare settings, ensuring children are set up for school. Independent evaluations show ‘Maths Champions’ can boost learning with three months’ extra progress.

The party said its plan would aim to tackle the growing gaps in early maths attainment that lead to falling engagement and to children falling further behind as they grow up. The party cited evidence showing that that one in four children was already behind expected levels by age five.

Labour pointed to the achievements of the work started by the last Labour government on phonics, laying the basis for a policy which has improved the reading ability of children throughout their time at school, as a template for its plans for primary maths.

Phillipson’s intervention would also seek to target deep-rooted problems with childhood numeracy that persist into adulthood, such as the inability to analyse basic graphs and calculate the value of supermarket offers.

An OECD estimate from 2016 found that nine million working-age adults in England have low basic literacy or numeracy skills with five million having low skills in both areas, while the lack of basic numeracy skills costs the economy £25bn a year.

Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, is expected to say:

“In every part of our system, in every year of children’s lives, in every corner of our country, we will be the party of high and rising standards.

“Maths is the language of the universe, the underpinning of our collective understanding. It cannot be left till the last years of school.

“It’s why I’m proud to tell you today, that we’ll tackle our chronic cultural problem with maths, by making sure it’s better taught at six, never mind sixteen.

“I am determined that Labour will bring maths to life for the next generation. I want the numeracy all our young people need – for life and for work, to earn and to spend, to understand and to challenge. I want that to be part of their learning right from the start.

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 10 October 2023.

In her speech at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will announce Young Futures, a new cross-government national programme aimed at giving Britain’s young people the best start in life, with a specific strand of activity targeted at those young people at most risk of being drawn into violent crime and delivering support for young people struggling with their mental health.

This will be a key part of achieving Labour’s mission to halve knife crime and youth violence in a decade.

The Shadow Home Secretary will set out how reforming services for young people will be the focus of a major cross-departmental initiative if Labour wins the next election.

Its intention is to bring together support for young people in a radical new, co-ordinated way to better address the new serious challenges facing teenagers and their families, from the rise in knife crime, youth violence and county lines exploitation through to growing mental health challenges and the longer-term impact of social media and the pandemic on young lives.

She will argue that, under the Tories, services supporting teenagers have become badly fragmented and neglected, with local partnerships stretched and struggling to coordinate activity. The Commission on Young Lives, Hidden in Plain Sight, described how: “the experience of parents [of at-risk children and teenagers] told a consistent tale of missed opportunities, unmet need, and a confused tangle of services. When there is contact with services, families say that they are too-often met with a conveyor belt of assessments, churn of professionals and early closure of cases.”

Cooper will point to a range of devastating statistics showing worsening outcomes for young people, including a record number of children and young people seeking mental health support from the NHS, analysis from the think tank Crest suggesting over 200,000 children are vulnerable to serious violence, a record number of children as victims of crime in 2021/2022, and last year seeing the highest number of people killed with a knife for over 70 years, with the biggest increase amongst young boys aged 16-17.

Labour’s new Young Futures programme will draw on up to £100 million a year, based on combining existing commitments to fund new youth mentors and mental health hubs in every community, youth workers in pupil referral units and A&E, and a programme of public sector reform to deliver:

• A targeted programme in every area to identify the young people most at risk of being drawn into violent crime and build a package of support that responds to the challenges they are facing. This will be achieved through bringing together services at a local level to better coordinate delivery of preventative interventions around the young person, rooted in a strong evidence base.
• Develop a national network of Young Futures hubs to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision.
• Youth workers in A&E units, custody centres, pupil referral units and communities to target young people who are starting to be drawn into violence.
• Ensure existing enforcement measures are effectively utilised, including family interventions, the use of curfews, enforcement of penalties, drug and alcohol interventions, community work, and stronger action against the criminal gangs that are drawing young people into crime.

The programme will be a major reform to focus on prevention rather than just sticking plaster policies, and will mean government departments, schools and local services working together so that at local level services operate around young people and their families rather than in separate silos. Local partnerships will draw together mainstream services with the work of Violence Reduction Units and voluntary sector organisations and will help deliver Labour’s mission to halve knife crime in the country within the next ten years.

The Young Futures Programme will be developed with local government leaders, experts, and young people themselves, and local partnerships will be measured against a national outcomes framework to allow for local innovation in delivery. The initial focus of the programme will be knife crime but once the programme is demonstrating results Labour will look to expand the remit beyond youth violence and into other mission objectives such as educational attainment.

The programme also aims to increase access to universal provision of youth services to help all young people thrive and get ready for work and life. This element of the programme will initially be boosted by Labour’s plan for new youth hubs and staff, but in time could be supported by the outcomes of a review in government of funding for support for young people to ensure it is effective and evidence based.

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, will say:

“Young people have been totally let down by this Tory Government, who have failed to recognise the growing vulnerability of many teenagers – be it because of the rise of county lines gangs, impact of damaging content on social media or the pandemic.

“Whether it’s addressing knife crime, violence in teenage relationships, or the record number of young people seeking mental health support, this floundering government have never sought to grip the issue and support teenagers and families at a tough time in their lives.

“We need urgent interventions to stop young people getting drawn into crime or exploitation in the first place. For too long, teenagers have been pushed from pillar to post between local authorities, mental health services, the police and youth offending teams. That’s why we are setting up a cross-Government ‘tough love’ initiative, with new youth hubs and proper local plans to identify those most at risk and help them access the support they need.

“And for those who repeatedly cause trouble in their community or are found carrying knives, there also need to be stronger interventions and clear consequences to stop their behaviour escalating and to keep other young people safe.

“A Labour Government will give young people their future back.”

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 10 October 2023.

Keir Starmer will today launch Labour’s Community Policing Guarantee to make streets safe again.

Announcing the five-point plan in his speech to Labour Party Conference, the Labour leader will pledge guaranteed town centre patrols through 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the streets.

The Community Policing Guarantee also includes new commitments to ensure local people are involved in setting local policing priorities, tough new sentencing for assaults on retail workers, tougher police action on shoplifting and stronger powers for local councils, police and courts to introduce zero tolerance zones in town centres to stop antisocial behaviour.

In his speech, Keir Starmer is expected to “call time on wasteful police procurement” which funds Labour’s plan for new officers and say that Labour’s community policing guarantee will deliver “more police in your town, fighting anti-social behaviour, taking back our streets.”

This comes as research shows 50 per cent of the public say they never see an officer on the beat – up from 27 per cent when Labour left office in 2010. Criminal damage affecting town centres is up nearly 20 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, and more than 20 million people have personally experienced or witnessed ASB in the last 12 months.

Labour’s Community Policing Guarantee

Labour will put police back in your town centres and neighbourhoods to make streets safe again, with increased patrols and 13,000 more neighbourhood police & PCSOs on the streets.

1. Police on the beat again

We’ll bring back proper neighbourhood policing by ensuring every part of the country has more local officers and PCSOs, and guaranteed town centre patrols with tougher powers. We’ll give every community a named officer they can get in touch with, so policing gets back to what it’s supposed to do.

2. Zero tolerance of antisocial behaviour

Getting tough with those who blight our towns, with new powers to ban repeat offenders from town centres and stamp out public drinking and drug use. Every local area will have a dedicated lead focused specifically on tackling anti-social behaviour.

3. A crackdown on shoplifting and violence 
We’ll reverse the Tories’ decision to downgrade the response to shoplifting under £200, making it easier to take action against repeat offenders and ending the farce of offending impunity, and creating a new specific offence of assault against retail workers.

4. Put communities back at the heart of policing

We will give local people and businesses a say in how their local area and town centre is policed, ensuring the police work with them on deciding priorities.

5. Make community policing something to be proud of

We will ensure that the path to career progression in policing is through getting to know your community – and ensure all neighbourhood officers are properly trained to be problem-solvers, not just recorders of crime. We will also work with the College of Policing and police chiefs to ensure neighbourhood policing has access to cutting edge technology and methods, including data analytics and hotspot policing.

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 9 October 2023.

Keir Starmer will today promise to get Britain its future back, saying that his five missions will usher in a decade of national renewal “totally focused on the interests of working people.”

The Labour leader will draw a contrast between his plan and the last 13 years of Tory rule, saying that with his leadership Labour will “turn our backs on never-ending Tory decline with a decade of national renewal” and give the British people the “government they deserve.”

The speech will answer the question ‘why Labour?’, explaining how economic growth, safer streets, cheaper homegrown British power, better opportunities, and a rejuvenated NHS will get Britain its future back.

Starmer will warn that the path back from 13 years of Tory decline will be hard. But he will speak with optimism and hope about Britain’s future, saying: “What is broken can be repaired, what is ruined can be rebuilt.”

He will promise that Labour will “get Britain building”, unleashing a “big build” that ensures “the winner this time will be working people, everywhere.” He will contrast this with Rishi Sunak going to Manchester last week to scrap Manchester’s train line and the failure of successive Tory governments to plan for Britain’s future.

He will also commit to fighting the next election on economic growth, saying: “An economy that works for the whole country, will require an entirely new approach to politics: mission government, ending the Tory disease of ‘sticking plaster politics’ with a simple Labour philosophy that together we fix tomorrow’s challenges, today.”

The focus on growth, building and national renewal stands in marked contrast not just to the Tories but to the way Labour has talked in the past. Starmer will tell party conference that the sweeping changes made to the Labour Party under his leadership mean it is, “a changed Labour Party, no longer in thrall to gesture politics, no longer a party of protest… Those days are done. We will never go back.” Instead, he will say, Labour is now, “a party of service… country first, party second.”

The Labour leader will also talk about the importance of the Union, saying that the result in Rutherglen has proven that Labour is the party that can unite all the nations of Britain, “reigniting the flame” to “face a modern age of insecurity” together.

Starmer will say: “There’s nothing more important. The Scottish people are not just looking at us, they’re also looking at Britain. For the first time in a long time we can see a tide that is turning. Four nations that are renewing. Old wounds of division – exploited by the Tories and the SNP – beginning to heal. Let the message from Rutherglen ring out across Britain: Labour serves working people in Scotland because Labour serves working people across all these islands.”

Speaking about how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted families across the country, Starmer will say that “we should never forget that politics should tread lightly on peoples’ lives, that our job is to shoulder the burden for working people – carry the load, not add to it.”

He will say that the test of success will be giving working people their futures back by making their lives easier, freer and more secure: “We have to be a government that takes care of the big questions so working people have the freedom to enjoy what they love. More time, more energy, more possibility, more life. We all need the ability to look forward, to move forward, free from anxiety. That’s what getting our future back really means.”

“It boils down to this: can we look the challenges of this age squarely in the eye and amidst all the change and insecurity find the hunger to win new opportunities and the strength to conserve what is precious.”

Summarising the challenge facing Britain and Labour’s response to it, Starmer will promise: “A Britain strong enough, stable enough, secure enough for you to invest your hope, your possibility, your future”, and one where people can be “certain that things will be better for your children. ”

“People are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal and we are the healers. People are looking to us because these challenges require a modern state and we are the modernisers. People are looking to us because they want us to build a new Britain and we are the builders.”

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 9 October 2023.

Labour has announced a sector deal for the automotive industry as part of their modern industrial strategy which will give British industry its future back.

The party’s comprehensive plan, drafted in partnership with industry, addresses issues at every stage of production, from securing resilient supply chains and a skilled workforce, to supporting British manufacturing, to removing the barriers for consumers to transition and increase demand for electric vehicles.

The sector deal will secure British automotive manufacturing for decades to come, generating two million electric cars and creating 80,000 high skilled jobs. This will be first of several plans for sectors key to achieving the party’s missions to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7.

Labour’s plans will also be a much welcome boost for motorists wishing to make the switch to cheaper to run electric vehicles in a cost of living crisis. The plan will ensure access to charging points and introduce new clear battery stickers to help consumers understand real life range and battery health when they buy second hand electric vehicles.

Labour’s auto strategy will deliver:

• New battery factories with priority planning permission to get spades in the ground
• Support colleges to specialise in technical skills needed to build electric vehicles
• Provide ten year funding cycles for automotive R&D, to match that given to aerospace
• Set binding targets and redirect funding to ensure reliable charging coverage in every part of the UK
• Introduce clear battery stickers on new electric vehicles giving customers real life range times
• Standardised battery health tests so customers can buy second hand electric vehicles with confidence
• Quality standards on data on charging apps to bring all the information needed together in one place
• Push government to work with European partners secure a delay on the Rules of Origin requirements
• Secure critical mineral partnerships with ally countries
• Tackle uncompetitive energy prices through our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower delivering a cheaper, zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.

Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, said:

“Growing up in the shadow of the Nissan plant in Sunderland I know the impact good manufacturing jobs have for communities. Every family deserves the chance to have an affordable, reliable car in their driveway. Labour knows the value of vehicles to our economy and society – that’s why we have a plan to drive the British automotive industry confidently into the future.

“Battery factories on our shores, reliable charging networks in every part of the country, secure supply chains, increased consumer demand and 80,000 more high skilled jobs. Labour has a plan to give British industry it’s future back.”

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 9 October 2023.

Labour will give Ofwat the powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses who are found to pump significant levels of raw sewage into our precious rivers, lakes and seas.

Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, Steve Reed MP, has outlined plans to end years of Conservative negligence and put the water industry under “special measures” to end the sewage crisis once and for all.

Expanding the regulatory powers of Ofwat, water bosses who fail to meet high environmental standards on sewage pollution will be met with significant sanctions to ensure they cannot profit from breaking the law.

While the Tories have allowed Britain’s waterways to become an open sewer, under Labour’s new plans, Ofwat would have been able to block six out of nine water bosses’ bonuses last year due to high levels of pollution into our rivers, lakes and seas.

This comes as water companies asked customers to pay an extra £156 a year, despite water bosses pocketing millions in bonuses. According to company reports, executives at UK water companies were paid nearly £10 million in bonuses last year.

This is part of Labour’s wider plan to put the water industry under “special measures” to end the Tory sewage scandal by 2030. This includes:

• Ensure that water bosses will face personal criminal liability for extreme and persistent lawbreaking
• Introducing severe and automatic fines for illegal discharges that water bosses cannot ignore

• Forcing all companies to monitor every single water outlet.

Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, said:

“The water industry and its regulatory framework are broken after 13 years of Tory government – with stinking, toxic sewage lapping up on our rivers, lakes, and seas.

“It is shocking that during a cost-of-living crisis, consumers are now being expected to pay the price, whilst CEOs are pocketing millions in bonuses.

“This Conservative government is too weak to tackle this scandal. They cut back enforcement and monitoring against water companies releasing this filth, and are now failing to prosecute bosses when they are blatantly breaking the law.

“Labour will turn the page on years of Conservative negligence. With Labour, the polluter – not the public – will pay. Labour will give Ofwat the powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses until they have cleared up their filth.”

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 9 October 2023.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves will today (Monday 9 October) promise working people they will be better off with Labour as she announces once in a generation reform as part of the party’s pledge to get Britain building again.

Addressing the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Reeves will vow to accelerate the building of critical infrastructure for digital connectivity, laboratories, and energy – to drive growth, create jobs and unlock private sector investment.

The reforms would include:

·       Speeding up the planning for critically important infrastructure by updating all national policy statements – which set out what types of projects the country needs – within the first six months of a Labour government

·       Fast tracking the planning process for priority growth areas of the economy, such as battery factories, laboratories, and 5G infrastructure

·       Ensuring local communities get something back by providing businesses and communities with a menu of potential incentives, which could include cheaper energy bills

·       Tackling unnecessary, egregious, and time-consuming litigation by setting clearer national guidance for developers on the engagement and consultation expected with local communities

·       Strengthening public sector capacity to expedite planning decisions by raising the stamp duty surcharge on non-UK residents to appoint 300 new planning officers

Reeves will say that “the single biggest obstacle to building infrastructure, to investment and to growth in this country is the Conservative Party”.

The last Labour government delivered HS1 on time, under budget and at a cost of £50million per mile, comparable to France and Japan. Under the Conservatives, HS2 has failed to be delivered and cost the taxpayer £400 million per mile, making it the most expensive railway in the world.

Analysis by the engineering consultancy ARUP calculates that by following best practice infrastructure projects can be delivered 25 per cent cheaper and 20 per cent quicker than now, and deliver a better deal for taxpayers, businesses and local communities.

She will also pledge to restore business investment as a share of GDP to the level it was under the last Labour government. This would mean an additional £50 billion more every year in the British economy by the end of the decade – the equivalent to £1,700 per household.

In her speech, Rachel Reeves is expected to say:

“Labour’s task is to restore hope to our politics. The hope that lets us face the future with confidence, with a new era of economic security because there is no hope without security.

“You cannot dream big if you cannot sleep in peace at night. The peace that comes from knowing you have enough to put aside for a rainy day and the knowledge that, when you need them, strong public services will be there for you and your family.

“The strength that allows a society to withstand global shocks because it is from those strong foundations of security, that hope can spring.

“The choice at the election is this. Five more years of the Tory chaos and uncertainty, which has left working people worse off or a changed Labour Party ready to strengthen Britain’s foundations, so working people are better off.”

On Labour’s plans to get Britain building again, she is expected to say:

“If we want to spur investment, restore economic security, and revive growth. Then we must get Britain building again.

“The Tories would have you believe we can’t build anything anymore. In fact, the single biggest obstacle to building infrastructure, to investment and to growth in this country is the Conservative Party itself.

“If the Tories won’t build, if the Tories can’t build, then we will. Taking head on the obstacles presented by our antiquated planning system.

“Since 2012, decision times for national infrastructure have increased by 65 per cent, now taking four years. Labour stands with the builders not the blockers.

“So today I am announcing our plans to get Britain building. A once in a generation set of reforms to accelerate the building of critical infrastructure for energy, transport, and technology. To fast-track battery factories, life sciences and 5G infrastructure and to tackle the litigation which devours time and money before we ever see shovels in the ground.

“And to make sure that when a local community hosts critical national infrastructure, they will feel the benefits, including lower energy bills.

“It is time we had a government with ambition for our communities. A government siding with the builders not the blockers. A government that will get Britain building again.”