‘We need to confront the future and learn from the past. Tony’s essay did neither’

“Global warming is the greatest long-term threat to our planet’s environment. Scarce energy resources mean rising prices and will threaten our country’s economy.”

These are not my words, but rather the words of Tony Blair in his last conference speech as Labour leader in 2006.

Reading Tony’s latest article earlier this week, it seemed like his new revelations had forgotten some of the actions of his own government, and equally he had failed to learn some of the lessons that we should have from his own premiership.

Whilst I have much respect for Tony’s achievements as Prime Minister, there were two areas that stood out for me in his article. The first was Net Zero, where the New Labour Government did a huge amount of work, and the second was housing, where I fear that Tony has failed to learn the lessons from his time as PM.

READ MORE: Who benefits from Blair’s essay?

The Blair Government signed the Kyoto Protocol and invested in wind and solar energy. From 1997–2010, the UK’s share of renewables in our electricity generation doubled, and clear targets were set to reduce our emissions. This was the right thing for our country’s security and future, and for our contribution to a sustainable world.

The arguments behind the need to move to clean and green energy sources haven’t changed since then. The need to cut ourselves off from the whims of petro-states and dictators; the need to give businesses certainty around investment in the UK; the need to create long-lasting jobs for the future; the need to cut carbon emissions; and the need to protect the world’s environment all remain valid reasons.

As Chair of the Transport Select Committee, I meet with so many British businesses that are at the forefront of delivering new cutting-edge technology alongside net zero. Whether it’s the work that airlines are doing around sustainable aviation fuel or the work done by motorway service stations to invest in EV charging, almost every part of our economy is having to adapt to the reality of changing energy use.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand and ignore the fact that fossil fuels are not an infinite resource. They will run out, and burning them for energy damages our planet.

The other glaring hole in Tony’s article was housing, a word that did not feature once, yet it is one of the defining challenges facing the UK. The housing crisis ruins the life chances of far too many, whether that’s children who cannot learn as they are sharing small rooms with siblings, or workers suffering worse health outcomes due to their living conditions.

In my constituency, I see so many examples of this crisis. In particular, many young graduates with well-paid jobs who still can’t afford to buy a home without help from a family member. 

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Many more are living in poor-quality private rented housing, with rents of over £2,000 a month. Despite around 65% of private rented tenants being in paid work, the UK Government spends £30 billion a year on housing benefits, which is, in essence, a subsidy to private landlords.

The omission of housing was also glaring because I genuinely believe that the last Labour Government made a mistake in failing to invest in new council housing. In 1997, we had over 4 million council homes yet by 2010 this number had dropped to around 2.5 million. The small number of new housing association homes built did not cover this gap and we did not build enough council homes. 

The Blair Government also failed to fix the broken Right to Buy mechanism by stemming the loss of affordable, decent-quality homes or by enabling councils to spend the receipts from sales on replacement stock. They merely reduced the discount on the purchase price for tenants. This failure has left a long legacy across the country where council homes are desperately needed.

This is why I was so pleased that this Labour Government is working with councils to build more council homes and investing £39 billion into social housing, while also further limiting the rules around Right to Buy.

I saw the huge benefits that a Labour Government brought to our corner of West London. Our local hospital, West Mid, was rebuilt, schools received much-needed funding, and the minimum wage and tax credits lifted so many of my constituents out of poverty. This is why I have sought to defend the record of the New Labour Government and the difference it made.

However, I believe that we need to confront the future and learn from the past. We cannot ignore the challenge posed by both the climate crisis and the housing crisis, which impact my constituents every week.

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