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Brown to endorse new generation of nuclear power and Heathrow airport expansion
Patrick Wintour and David Adam, Guardian
Gordon Brown will call for an acceleration of nuclear power today in a speech to business leaders designed to show he is focused on the long term and will not buckle in the face of negative headlines.

During his annual address to the Confederation of British Industry, the prime minister will also give his personal endorsement of the third runway project at Heathrow.

He will tell business leaders: "Long-term reforms will intensify and be stepped up. We must leave behind the old policies of yesterday and plan for new long-term policies which will serve us better tomorrow. There are no answers to be found in old and outworn dogmas."
(26 November 2007)

A dogma that has had its day
Tony Juniper, Guardian
Last week, he was cutting carbon emissions. This week, he's planning airport expansion. How joined-up is 'Green' Gordon?
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Last week, Gordon Brown went a striking shade of bright green, talking about the need to cut our carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80%. This week, we appear to be back to normal, with a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that called for the expansion of Heathrow, an overhaul of the planning system (which will very likely increase climate-changing emissions from new infrastructure, including incinerators and bigger roads), and a reminder that new nuclear power stations remain high on the agenda.

On airports, the prime minister said that "We have to respond to a clear business imperative and increase capacity at our airports ... our prosperity depends on it ... And this week, we demonstrated our determination not to shirk the long-term decisions, but to press ahead with a third runway" (at Heathrow). While last week the business imperative was, quite rightly, on low-carbon development, this week the old economic dogmas have resurfaced, and as usual, they are covered in tarmac.

Similarly short-term and ecologically flawed logic has been applied to an analysis of the planning system.
(26 November 2007)
Comment on the previous news item.

New terminal is planned for Heathrow
Associated Press
The British government set out proposals Thursday to add a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports.

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said the expansion was needed to aid economic growth and that the expansion would meet tough environmental standards.

"Heathrow supports 170,000 jobs, billions of pounds of British exports and is our main gateway to the global economy. But for too long it has operated at nearly full capacity, with relatively minor problems causing severe delays to passengers," Kelly said.

"If nothing changes, Heathrow's status as a world-class airport will be gradually eroded - jobs will be lost and the economy will suffer," she added.
(22 November 2007)

Brown: Britain's prosperity depends on airport expansion
Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited
Gordon Brown today gave his unequivocal support for a third runway at Heathrow in an address to a conference of business leaders.

Speaking at the annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, the prime minister said that business was right to call for airport expansion and that Britain's prosperity depended on it.

"Even as we place strict local environmental limits on noise and air pollution and ensure that aviation pays its carbon costs, we have to respond to a clear business imperative and increase capacity at our airports," Brown said.

"Our prosperity depends on it: Britain as a world financial centre must be readily accessible from around the world."
(26 November 2007)

We build 3 million homes - or leave these families in Dickensian misery
George Monbiot, The Guardian
It sounds preposterous: 3 million new homes in England alone by 2020. My instinct is to fight this project. It threatens Britain's countryside, the character of our towns, our water supplies and carbon targets. Today the housing and regeneration bill, which will help to implement this building programme, has its second reading in the House of Commons.

Where should we stand? Is the housing crisis as acute as some people have claimed? Or has it been whipped up by the House Builders Federation, hoping to get its claws into the countryside? To find out whether these homes are really needed, I asked the charity Shelter to take me to meet some of the people it works with in London. I had no idea. I simply had no idea.

...This is a small sample, but it's indicative of a quiet social catastrophe. Over half a million households are officially overcrowded, 85,000 are in temporary accommodation, 1.6m are on the social housing waiting list. Even before you consider the backlog, the newly arising need for homes is projected to run at some 220,000 a year. Shelter's surveys tell the same story over and over: children struggling with their schoolwork, parents crushed by depression and stress, families living in conditions familiar to Dickens and Engels.

Part of this crisis arises from the Labour government's shocking failure to build social homes.
(27 November 2007)
When one is presented a choice of worse and worser, perhaps it's time to examine assumptions and take a fresh approach. -BA