Category Archives: Infrastructure

The quick fix to the toxic air crisis? Make the polluter pay

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11422536206_ccd9ad9e21_kThis post is by Greg Archer, director, clean vehicles at Transport & Environment.

After being forced to announce its controversial plans to tackle air pollution, ministers have been quick to blame the previous government for the mess caused by encouraging diesel car sales. But ministers have repeatedly refused to point the finger, or act against the true culprit, the car industry, that has for years sold cars that pass lab tests but often produce ten times or more pollution on the road. As a result, they have contributed to the toxic air that is killing up to 40,000 people a year in the UK. Read more

Solutions to air pollution have to work for everyone

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transport_blogThis post is by Helen Hayes MP for Dulwich and West Norwood.

It’s estimated that toxic air pollution from diesel vehicles in London is responsible for over 9,000 premature deaths a year, and it disproportionately affects school children and the most vulnerable members of our communities. Brixton Road, in my constituency, exceeded its annual air pollution limit just five days into 2017. The Mayor of London has made the battle against this invisible killer a top priority for his term and has succeeded in getting it onto both the national and local political agendas. Read more

Industrial strategy: where UK and US economic plans diverge

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Fotolia_96263802_M.jpgTheresa May recently launched the centrepiece of her domestic agenda: the UK’s industrial strategy. After six months of commentary on the parallels between the phenomena that led to the Brexit vote and US election result, it is useful to reflect on the differences that are starting to emerge. A quick read of the green paper appears to show that May is charting a very different course on industrial strategy from the one now being advocated on the other side of the Atlantic. Significant differences are the approach to resource productivity and the attitude to growing low carbon markets. Read more

What the government should do with the housing white paper

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Newly built homesThis post is by Shaun Spiers, chief executive of CPRE. It first appeared on CPRE’s blog.

There will be much to welcome in this month’s housing white paper. We expect a big emphasis on brownfield development and more support to enable local authority planning departments to do their job. Best of all, it looks set to address the main cause of the housing shortage: not planning or a lack of land, but the system’s over dependence on a dozen big companies to deliver the new homes the country needs. Read more

Why the Treasury should go for low carbon infrastructure, regardless of climate change

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9167178823_5ab2056b2a_kThis post first appeared as a Huffington Post Blog.

It was George Osborne who, festooned with hard hat and high vis, proclaimed that ‘we are the builders.’ He looked a bit silly, but his message was serious. Building things is what real people do; it’s where real economic growth happens; and it’s a real investment in our shared future. Osborne invented the line, but it is Theresa May who is doing the building. As the BBC’s business editor put it, “from beating ourselves up for not being able to build anything, the UK is suddenly building everything.” Well, almost everything. Read more

How can Britain keep the lights on without subsidising fossil fuels?

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London nightBritain has an extraordinarily reliable power system. The lights flicker so rarely that it is easy to forget that the power system is actually a finely tuned and, in some ways, fragile machine, which breaks if electricity demand and supply are not in balance. Perturbations, such as the up-tick in demand after the FA Cup final, or the sudden outage of a coal plant, must be steadied within seconds. Read more

A strategy to solve air inequality and keep Britain moving

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leedsThis post is by Stephen Heidari-Robinson, former energy and environment adviser to David Cameron.

Unlike smog, today’s air pollution is an invisible killer: according to the Royal College of Physicians, 40,000 Britons die from it each year, twenty times the number killed in road accidents. Children are the most vulnerable: research suggests that their long term health and learning both suffer. Read more

What the steel crisis can teach us about Britain’s new industrial strategy

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Steelmaking workshopThis post is by Green Alliance’s Dustin Benton, head of energy and resources, and Jonny Hazell, senior policy adviser.

Forget the theory: the first test of Britain’s new industrial strategy will be how it handles the steel crisis. Steel used to be the sign of an advanced manufacturing nation, and it still provides the sort of skilled employment outside London that Theresa May has promised to protect. It’s at the heart of the debate about exporting carbon emissions and Brexit Britain’s industrial future. The world will inevitably draw lessons from how it is handled.

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Five things you should know about industrial strategy

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crossrail tunnel_Flickr No.10_cropIndustrial strategy is back.  It featured in Theresa May’s Birmingham leadership speech as one of the economic reforms necessary “to get the whole economy firing”.  As prime minister, May has followed through by elevating the former Department for Business Innovation and Skills’ competitiveness remit ‘to develop a long term industrial strategy’ to the title of the new Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Read more

Why aren’t we tackling energy efficiency in buildings when it’s so simple to solve?

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5905213394_77ab6664ca_z.jpgThis post is by Andy Ford, director of the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) at London South Bank University and Bruce Tofield, associate consultant with the Adapt Low Carbon Group at the Passivhaus Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia.

What’s the easiest thing that we could do to reduce energy use, tackle climate change and make life healthier, more affordable and more comfortable for millions of people in the UK; something that will also promote higher productivity, quality and skills?

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