The renewal we urgently need

Planning a journey on the West Coast Main Line today proved near impossible yet again, thanks to widespread delays and cancellations. I was reminded for the umpteenth time that our rail network’s drainage system, designed for the Victorians’ chilly but stable climate, is no longer fit for 21^st century weather that’s getting ever more extreme.

While populist politicians try to harvest a few votes by claiming that squeezing every last drop of oil and gas out of the North Sea might reduce prices for a few months, more responsible people are looking at how to mitigate climate change. Fewer are looking at how to adapt to it.

So when the prime minister restates his growth ambition as “the renewal of our economy” via capital investment, you can see what he might mean. There’s a vast amount of work to be done renewing drainage and flood defence systems in out cities, towns and villages, our transport systems and our countryside too. Add to that a huge burden of sea defence as the ice sheets start to fail and you can see that, if the route to growth really runs through capital investment in infrastructure, there’s a vast opportunity in the public sector.

It’s when it comes to the “how”, Sir Keir’s train of thought gets as badly disrupted as flooding has currently left the whole line between Motherwell and Lancaster. The prime minister’s piece sinks into the same old fantasies planted so firmly in his mind by five years of relentless junk-tank lobbying.

Just look at his priorities: “enacting the biggest planning reforms in a generation to back builders, not blockers; supporting the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick.” (So, no action on climate or food and water security then).

“Our growth mission will include a renewed focus on sweeping away unnecessary regulation,” fantasises the PM. “Often it has been those on the left who have favoured regulation, but there is nothing progressive in regulations which serve only to increase the cost of living for the poorest, to slow down economic growth unnecessarily, or prevent a Labour government achieving its aims.”

The massive increase we need in protection for our settlements and our services, however, will need very careful planning and much stronger regulation. Along with defence and the health service, it’s probably the most urgent bit of investment the country needs and the most urgent bit of climate action.

The prime minister should remember he lives in Downing Street, not Tufton Street, and that a previous occupant of No.10 successfully made a great virtue out of taking tough, unpopular decisions.

Meanwhile the clock is ticking on climate adaptation – and his premiership.

Jon Reeds