You can almost feel John Selwyn Gummer, Zac Goldsmith and the rest of the Conservatives’ green lobby quaking. Kemi Badenoch has incurred their wrath by proposing that the Environment Agency and Natural England be abolished. It is part of a package, which also involves the reduction in levies charged to housebuilders, which the Tories claim will reduce the cost of building a new home by £50,000.

The pendulum has swung too far towards conservation and too far away from protecting homes and property

The pendulum has swung too far towards conservation and too far away from protecting homes and property

I am not sure about that figure. House-building is also hampered by a skills shortages which will not be addressed by these measures; we will only solve that by eliminating the likes of gender studies courses at universities and by encouraging students onto bricklaying courses instead. But the Conservatives are at least half right: the Environment Agency needs to go. The only question is what replaces it. If it is an agency more focussed on flood defence, then all well and good. If it is a free-for-all, where developers are allowed to build pretty well wherever they like, it will be a disaster.

The Environment Agency was........

© The Spectator