Tories pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England

The Conservative Party will pledge to scrap the Environment Agency and Natural England as part of a sweeping deregulatory package designed to fast-track housebuilding and infrastructure.

Speaking at the Tory conference in Birmingham, Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith is set to announce a major rollback of environmental protections and planning rules. The party claims the aggressive reforms could slash £50,000 from the cost of building a new home.

Under the proposals, both Natural England and the Environment Agency would be entirely abolished. The Conservatives argue that the two regulatory bodies block vital housing developments and pile unnecessary costs onto builders. Any essential functions left over from the watchdogs would be brought directly under the control of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Katie Lam, the Shadow Housing Secretary, will tell the conference that dismantling these planning regulations and enforcement bodies will prevent "anti-growth ideologues" from holding national development hostage.

The deregulation plan also targets local community funding rules. The Tories plan to abolish Section 106 agreements and the community infrastructure levy. These rules currently force developers to build a proportion of affordable housing and fund local services like schools and GP surgeries. Instead, the party proposes a single, simplified developer levy.

Further cuts to building rules include ditching net-zero targets such as the Future Homes Standard, which mandates that all new-build homes in England must be zero-carbon ready.

To clear the path for major projects, the Tories also want to withdraw the UK from the Aarhus convention. The international treaty makes it easier for local community groups to mount legal challenges against major planning developments.

Griffith will use his first speech as Shadow Chancellor to demand faster progress on building Heathrow's controversial third runway. He is expected to say he refuses "to accept for a single moment" that the UK should have to wait until the 2040s to get the runway built.

He will also task shadow Treasury ministers with finding ways to simplify the tax code, which he plans to describe as a "cat's cradle of complexity."

The policy blitz follows the publication of The Right Way, a new strategy pamphlet released by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. Taking inspiration from Margaret Thatcher’s 1976 document The Right Approach, Badenoch said the party must prepare to govern from day one, despite currently sitting third in the polls behind Labour and Reform UK.

"Keir Starmer didn’t have a plan. That’s why he’s gone," Badenoch said on Sunday, arguing that Prime Minister Andy Burnham also lacked a coherent strategy for national growth.