In this Institute of Economic Affairs interview, our Director of Communications Callum Price interviews Sam Richards, CEO of Britain Remade and former special adviser at 10 Downing Street. The conversation examines Britain's fundamental growth problem - the country's inability to build essential infrastructure. Richards argues that underpinning Britain's economic challenges, from the world's highest industrial energy costs to London being Europe's most expensive city for housing, is the fact that Britain has effectively banned building across energy, transport and housing sectors.
Richards traces the roots of Britain's building crisis back to the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which he describes as creating a uniquely restrictive system where the state has veto power over private land use. The discussion covers the absurd costs of environmental regulations, including the £121 million bat tunnel and 80,000-page planning applications for 3.3 miles of railway track. He criticises the current environmental protection system as failing both development and nature, with all natural indicators in decline despite blocking essential infrastructure. The conversation also addresses Scotland's nuclear ban, despite nuclear being the safest form of energy, and the need for zonal pricing to incentivise local energy infrastructure acceptance.
The interview concludes with an assessment of the current Labour government's planning reforms, which Richards argues fail to deliver the radical wholesale changes needed. Despite rhetoric about backing builders over blockers, he suggests the government's planning bill merely adds another regulatory layer rather than fundamentally reforming the discretionary system. Richards advocates for three key changes: scrapping habitats regulations for strategic conservation, shifting to a zonal planning system, and unbanning nuclear power in Scotland to unlock Britain's economic growth potential.
Find Britain Remade here.
