Shadow chancellor Griffith pledges deregulation drive, with £50,000 cut to new-home prices

Right · 2Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith is set to pledge the "most ambitious deregulation project in a generation" in a speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which opened on Sunday. 1 2 Right · 2The central pledge is to cut the price of a new home by about £50,000. City A.M. says the figure also depends on a pledge to scrap stamp duty on a primary residence, according to party analysis. 1 2 Right · 2The announced policies include abolishing the quangos Natural England and the Environment Agency and moving their responsibilities into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 1 2

Right · 2The party would also scrap the extended producer responsibility scheme, which makes manufacturers cover the cost of managing their packaging waste. The scheme is widely called a "packaging tax", and GB News calls it a "polluter pays" charge. The party estimates it costs businesses £1.5billion and argues that removing it would lower supermarket prices. City A.M. notes the Bank of England previously suggested the scheme added 0.5 percentage points to CPI inflation. 1 2 Right · 1The Conservatives would scrap the Future Homes Standard, which from next year would require new homes to include low-carbon heating such as heat pumps. GB News reports that the party's researchers cited a 2023 Birmingham City Council document putting the extra cost at £30,789 for a detached home. The same analysis found the technologies could save homeowners £2,715 a year on energy bills, recouping the outlay in roughly 11 years. 2 Right · 1City A.M. also reports plans to replace various infrastructure project charges with a single levy, and to leave the Aarhus Convention, the treaty giving the public rights over decisions affecting the environment, to speed up nuclear and other infrastructure. 1

Right · 1Griffith is also expected to say a Conservative government would do "whatever it takes" to get a third runway built at Heathrow. City A.M. reports that a policy paper on the runway is expected to go to parliament within months, that Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to endorse the project, and that Sadiq Khan opposes it on environmental grounds. Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye welcomed the "can do" attitude. 1 Right · 1Griffith is expected to call the tax code "a cat's cradle of complexity" and to say tax simplification will be a mission for every Treasury minister. GB News says the speech will also accuse Burnham of chasing "a socialist fever dream of the 1970s". 2 Right · 1Shadow Housing Secretary Katie Lam and Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins backed the plans. Lawrence Newport of Looking for Growth called them "significant and radical". The British Retail Consortium's Helen Dickinson said "it's high time to review" packaging fees, and the Food and Drink Federation's Karen Betts urged "streamlining" the system. 2