Tory ‘deregulation’ agenda risks higher bills and weaker environmental protection
Green Liberal Democrats have responded to the Conservative Conference announcements, in particular their pitch of "cheaper homes, lower taxes and less red tape”. But cutting environmental protections, weakening regulation, and removing planning requirements does not make the costs disappear – it shifts them onto homeowners, councils and the environment.
Southwark Councillor and Chair of Green Liberal Democrats, Graham Neale, said:
"The Conservatives had 14 years to build homes and grow the economy, and they failed on both. Their answer now is to scrap the bodies and standards that protect people from flooding, pollution and rising energy bills.
"Abolishing the Environment Agency while floods and river pollution are getting worse is reckless. Dissolving Natural England, our statutory nature watchdog, in the middle of a nature crisis is no better. Moving their functions into Defra does not solve the problem. It removes the independent expertise that communities and wildlife rely on. As the union representing their staff has pointed out, years of Conservative cuts left these regulators short of resources. The fix is to fund them properly, not shut them down."
The Green Liberal Democrats said weakening environmental regulation would ultimately leave communities and taxpayers paying the price. Recent regulatory failures have already highlighted the consequences of under-resourced oversight, while proposals to scrap extended producer responsibility for packaging could leave councils and taxpayers footing the bill for waste that should be paid for by producers.
They also warned that scrapping the Future Homes Standard would be a false economy, leaving households with higher energy bills and creating a larger retrofit bill in future. Liberal Democrat MP Max Wilkinson's Sunshine Bill campaign secured a government commitment to put solar panels on new homes through the Standard.
The party said nature should be seen as an opportunity rather than a barrier to growth. Liberal Democrat MPs, including Pippa Heylings, are campaigning to halt and reverse nature's decline by 2030 and double nature by 2050, while Heylings' Chalk Streams Bill seeks greater protection for the UK's globally rare chalk streams.
On planning, the Green Liberal Democrats warned that replacing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy with a single levy could mean new developments are built without the affordable housing, GP surgeries, schools and green space communities need.
They also criticised Conservative support for a third runway at Heathrow, arguing that future growth should instead focus on clean energy, home retrofitting and nature restoration.
Councillor Neale added:
"Liberal Democrats want to build the homes this country needs, and build them well: affordable, solar-powered, energy efficient and backed by the infrastructure communities deserve. Cutting corners on nature, climate and community is a recipe for a worse future, not growth."