Infrastructure Health and safety rules 'hold UK back'

Overbearing health and safety rules are stopping Britain building new infrastructure, according to the economist whom Keir Starmer has cited as an inspiration for his growth strategy.

- Kiran Stacey Helena Horton

John Fingleton, who recently wrote a report for the government on how to encourage developers to build new nuclear power stations, said regulators needed to change their attitude to risk if the country was to end its long economic stagnation.

Starmer last week accepted Fingleton’s recommendations and said he wanted to use his approach to inform the government’s wider industrial strategy.

Fingleton told the Guardian: “We need to have a more mature relationship with risk. Projects often do not go ahead because of concerns about safety but often all you are doing is moving the risk somewhere else.”