Birmingham, October 4 — Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK Conservative Party, warned that ‘radical measures may be necessary’ at the next general election during the party’s annual conference in Birmingham on Monday. She released a nearly 100-page document titled ‘The Right Way’ on the first day of the conference, stating that ‘living standards have stalled’ and ‘regulation has accumulated faster than anyone can remove it’.
Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith is set to unveil the party’s economic policies on Monday, describing them as ‘the most ambitious deregulation project in a generation’. He plans to outline the plans ‘line by line – every bill, every regulation, every chapter’.
A key component involves scrapping the upcoming Future Homes Standard and related housebuilding rules scheduled to take effect next year, which currently require developers to include low-carbon heating technology such as heat pumps or district heat networks in new builds.
Party researchers cited a 2023 Birmingham City Council document that found installing heat pumps and comprehensive solar panels could increase the cost of building a detached home by £30,789 (approximately US$39,000), while reducing annual energy bills by £2,715 (approximately US$3,450), meaning the investment would pay for itself in roughly 11 years. The Conservatives also intend to abolish stamp duty on property purchases, a policy already part of their platform, to further reduce house prices.
They plan to replace Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy with a single infrastructure charge to speed up development approvals. Additionally, the party proposes abolishing Natural England and the Environment Agency, transferring their functions to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), a move Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins described as ‘common sense for our countryside and the cost’ amid ‘rocking food prices, record numbers of farms closing and nature in decline’.
Griffith’s plan also includes scrapping the extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging, which the Conservatives say would lift a £1.5 billion (approximately US$1.9 billion) burden from businesses. He will criticise the UK’s tax code as ‘a cat’s cradle of complexity’, arguing that time spent on tax returns detracts from business and family life, and pledge tax simplification as a mission for every Treasury minister.
Griffith will also support building a third runway at Heathrow Airport, stating the party is ‘all in for growth’ and will legislate to remove blockers to necessary infrastructure. Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie is expected to challenge the Scottish National Party’s opposition to nuclear power stations in Scotland, calling their approach ‘Luddite’ and claiming it harms jobs and energy security.
Labour Party Chairwoman Bridget Phillipson criticised the Conservatives, saying they wanted to take the country ‘back to a politics that let so many people down over the past 40 years’. The conference is taking place in Birmingham, with Griffith’s policy unveiling scheduled for Monday.
