The modern world was made in Britain. We invented the steam engine, built the first railway, and forever revolutionised industry. We switched on the grid, split the atom and built the first fullscale nuclear power station.
We owe an enormous debt to the generations that came before us for building the railways, reservoirs, roads, pylons, sewers, power stations and homes that we rely on every single day. But instead of continuing our proud tradition of inventing and building things to make everyone’s lives better, we have stopped. Britain has not built a new nuclear power station in 29 years and not built a new reservoir in more than 30 years. The consequences are clear to see.
Young families are forced to rent cramped cold properties with no prospect of ownership because we haven’t built enough homes in decades. People struggle to pay their energy bills because delay and red tape have held back clean domestic sources of power. Too much potential is squandered across our proud towns and cities because we have made it too hard to build the fast, reliable transport links people desperately need. The result is Britain’s economy left to fall behind with real wages stagnant for the past 15 years.
It doesn’t have to be this way
Britain’s decline is not inevitable and we are still a great country. Britain Remade has a plan to get us back to what we’re good at: inventing and building things to solve our biggest problems.
First:
We don’t think it should take 13 years to build a new offshore wind farm when so many families can’t afford to pay their bills. That’s why we have a plan to speed up new clean domestic energy infrastructure to cut bills, create jobs, and make Britain more self-reliant.
Second:
We don’t think it’s acceptable that building new railways, trams and roads can cost up to 10 times more in Britain than it does in other European countries. That’s why we have a plan to cut the cost of building new transport links and upgrading existing ones, while empowering local leaders to get spades in the ground.
Third:
We don’t think it’s acceptable that Britain spends more per head on housing than any other European country even though our homes are older, colder, and smaller. That’s why we have a plan to end Britain’s housing shortage by removing the barriers to building new warm homes in areas with fast transport connections to the best jobs.
Look at what Britain can accomplish when we put our minds to it and have a plan. Think of the coronavirus vaccine developed in Oxford that saved millions of lives worldwide, the Starstreak missile launchers made in Belfast that helped brave Ukrainians defend their freedom from Putin’s invasion, and Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, which provides clean power to 3 million homes. Britain has the potential to lead the world in developing the clean technologies of the future, harnessing the power of AI, and discovering new cures and medicines.
We could have cheap, clean power, warm, affordable homes, and fast, reliable transport. And we could export the technologies we’ve developed to the rest of the world, making it easier for them to decarbonise while rebuilding Britain’s industrial base.