Katie Lam: Britain has forgotten how to build – it’s time to bulldoze the rules holding us back

Britain has forgotten how to build – it’s time to bulldoze the rules holding us back Shadow Housing Secretary Katie Lam writes that Britain must scrap the rules and red tape holding back infrastructure projects and get building again Sign up to the Opinion Newsletter Email address Sign up I agree to receive updates and information about my account, the GB News Community, and related products and services from GB News. By signing up you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and Community Rules. Thank you for signing up! See the latest from GB News here . Choose GB News on Google - add us as a preferred source Choose GB News Support GB News Champion free speech and independent journalism while unlocking exclusive benefits. Support us It took about two years to build Heathrow Airport in the 1940s and around five months to convert it from a military site into London’s main civilian airport. We’ve now spent almost all of the 21st century debating whether or not to build a third runway there. The HS2 railway line, meanwhile, was first given initial approval in 2012. According to the latest estimates, it’s due to be finished in 2036 at the earliest – that’s about five times longer than it took to build the original London to Birmingham railway line back in the 1830s. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say And in September, the Botley Road railway bridge in Oxford was finally finished. It took more than three years to build, despite being just 18 metres long – that’s roughly the same amount of time that it took to build the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, which is more than twenty times as long. At the moment, there are far, far too many examples like this. Why does it take so much longer to build fundamental infrastructure today than it used to? And why is it always so expensive? Angela Rayner at a building site | PA It's not because we’ve forgotten how to build, and it's not because building has actually become harder. In fact, we've made all sorts of incredible technological advances over the past few centuries which should have made building far easier. It's because the Government imposes all sorts of rules and creates all sorts of costs, which bog down every project. This kind of infrastructure – roads, railways, reservoirs, power stations, bridges – is the foundation on which modern life is built. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS Andy Burnham is out of ideas – revisiting Brexit shows the PM doesn’t trust the voters – Katie Lam Water crisis proves we must axe EU treaty holding back reservoirs and driving up bills - Katie Lam Labour's new housing plan is an assault on the very freedom that made Britain great - Katie Lam It’s only there because those who came before us put it there. If we don’t maintain it, and build on it, it will crumble and fail. In some cases, we're already starting to see this. Earlier this year, thousands of people in Kent and Sussex were left without running water, for days at a time. People were forced to wash their children in the bath with bottled water, and farmers were left unable to provide water for their animals. In part, that was the result of shocking mismanagement by South East Water's previous leadership team. But it's also because our water infrastructure was built by the Victorians and hasn't been improved since. If we don't solve this problem now and get Britain building, we'll see many more cases like this. As Kemi Badenoch rightly said, earlier this week, we have to tackle this issue head-on. The next Conservative Government will scrap the ideological Net Zero rules, which are adding tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of a new home. We'll also leave the Aarhus Convention, a European treaty which lets activist groups block or delay every project, while the taxpayer covers the vast majority of the legal costs. But, perhaps most importantly, we have to rediscover the sense of self-belief that inspired those who came before us to do so many brilliant things. Britain is the best country in the world and, given the chance, we will do brilliant things again. We have to get rid of the rules holding them back, and get Britain building. 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