Latest news with #BarryGardiner
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks' in all new homes
Providing every new home with at least one 'swift brick' to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill. The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee. Despite the Labour party having supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled on Conservative government legislation in 2023, housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, told the House of Commons committee: 'We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement.' A new petition calling for swift bricks to be made mandatory for new homes has rapidly reached 80,000 signatures in recent days, two years after activist Hannah Bourne-Taylor won a parliamentary debate to help the rapidly declining migratory birds after 109,896 voters signed a government petition. Bourne-Taylor said there appeared to be 'no logic' to the government's opposition to swift bricks when they precisely meet its ambition of creating win-wins for the economy and nature. 'They are going to be building millions of bricks into walls. I don't understand why there's such a problem with a brick with a hole in it. It seems ludicrous,' she said. 'Why say your new legislation is a win-win for new homes and the environment and exclude the only measure that is a true win-win? 'They are tone-deaf. This is such a tiny thing they could do, but it's brewing such a distrust and sense of betrayal among the people who voted for them.' Although some housebuilders are incorporating swift bricks in newbuilds, a recent University of Sheffield study found that 75% of bird and bat boxes demanded as a condition of planning permission for new housing developments had failed to materialise when the housing estates were complete. Asked if he would meet MPs to discuss how to encourage the building industry to adopt swift bricks more widely, Pennycook said he would be happy to have conversations with MPs despite claiming his correctly reported opposition to mandatory cavity-nesting bricks had been 'spun' in a Guardian report. These comments follow Pennycook's recent defence of the planning bill's proposed amendments to the Protection of Badgers Act that MPs warned would lead to 'hostile treatment' of the much-persecuted animal in which the minister joked: 'I would just like to make very clear, for the Guardian article that will no doubt appear tomorrow, that I have no particular animus against badgers in whatever form.' Bourne-Taylor said she hoped that the swift brick amendment would now be championed by the House of Lords. If that fails, Bourne-Taylor hopes to take her campaign to the wider public once again. The rising new petition for swift bricks 'just goes to show the public concern,' she said. 'The government are not listening to the public or the experts.'
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Sea oil is a test of Keir's growth goals
We are about to see the Prime Minister's commitment to growth 'above all else' put to the test. A decision is needed soon on whether to proceed with new offshore oil and gas projects in the North Sea, which environmentalists in the Labour Party are determined to block. The Rosebank and Jackdaw schemes, which together will produce close to 10 per cent of the country's energy needs, were rendered void by a Scottish court last week on technical grounds. It ruled that the consents given by the last government failed to take into account the emissions from burning the fossil fuels, not just those generated by their extraction. However, this did not invalidate the licences already granted and Labour in its manifesto pledged to honour those while stopping future schemes. The Prime Minister is believed to have assured Equinor, the Norwegian majority state-owned company behind Rosebank, that permission will be granted once the proper consents have been sought. But this has triggered a major row in the Labour Party, with backbenchers claiming that the court had effectively killed the projects on environmental grounds. Barry Gardiner, a former Labour energy spokesman, said: 'The PM and the Chancellor should remember they were elected by voters, not by Equinor.' The most powerful opponent is Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, who has called Rosebank 'a colossal waste of taxpayer money and climate vandalism'. He was asked in the Commons on Tuesday whether it would go ahead but ducked the question. 'We are going to follow due process,' he said. Yet the rationale behind blocking these projects is hard to fathom since the country will have to fill the gap with imports for decades to come, with a bigger impact on emissions than if the oil and gas were extracted domestically. Moreover, thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in tax revenues would be transferred to producers of the liquefied natural gas we would have to buy. Net zero zealots on the Labour backbenches, arguing that Britain needs to set an example even if it involves national self-harm, need to justify that thinking – and the higher heating bills – to their constituents. If they and Mr Miliband remain opposed then the Prime Minister must face them down, otherwise his commitment to growth will be exposed as a sham. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
BBC News
27-01-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Reeves wrong to pit climate vs growth, says Labour MP
A Labour MP has signalled his objection to an expansion of Heathrow Airport, saying that building more runway capacity would not help reach the government's net zero Rachel Reeves has hinted the government would support a third runway at the London shadow climate change secretary Barry Gardiner said: "I think Rachel is wrong to pit decarbonising the economy against economic growth. Decarbonisation is the growth of the future."The chancellor told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that "sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand" but said she would not comment on "speculation" about the plans which would be set out in due course. She added that a third runway at Heathrow would also "mean that instead of circling London, flights can land".Reeves is expected to make a major speech on plans to boost the economy this week, as the government seeks to focus its message on the weekend, the government announced plans to fast-track permission for housing and commercial developments near train stations and changes to planning rules, running alongside the rolling back of environmental impact assessments. Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, the government's growth champion, Labour MP Dan Tomlinson, said the party was "elected on a manifesto that was very clear that growth was our number one focus"."We were also clear that we would make very effort to get to clean power by 2030," he argued it was possible to simultaneously expand airport capacity and meet climate targets, pointing to technological changes "coming down the track" such as sustainable fuel and electric planes. Gardiner, who sits on the environmental audit committee, argued there was a limit to what technological could said climate experts had concluded there was no way to reach net zero carbon emissions without limiting the aviation sector. Senior Labour figures, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and energy Secretary Ed Miliband, have opposed Heathrow expansion plans in the past, while the aviation industry and business chiefs have consistently been in last week if he would quit if a third Heathrow runway got the go-ahead, Miliband said: "Don't be ridiculous, no."While a revitalisation of the plans to expand the airport represents an about-turn for some in the Cabinet, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who won a third term in 2024 on a platform of opposing airport expansion in the capital, has said his views "haven't changed" and suggested any plans would need mitigations for noise pollution and carbon emissions. There is currently no application for a third runway at Heathrow and in December the airport's boss said the company needed a "clear steer" from the government by the end of 2025 for plans to be taken for expansion were initially put forward in 2007 and a third runway at Heathrow was first approved by the Labour government in plan was scrapped in 2010 by the Conservative-Lib Dem led coalition. Six years later, a third runway was once again given the green light by Theresa May's 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled the decision to allow the expansion was unlawful because it did not take account of climate commitments; however this was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
