Bright future for UK after Covid says PM

Johnson defends restrictions and state bailouts to combat impacts of disease

BORIS JOHNSON promised a “bright future” for the country when it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic as he defended the “erosions of liberty” needed to curb the spread of the disease.

The Prime Minister said there was “simply no reasonable alternative” to the restrictions and state interventions aimed at tackling Covid- 19.

But as the country recovers, Mr Johnson promised sweeping social and economic changes similar to the “New Jerusalem” built in Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War.

He told the Conservative Party conference – being held online due to social distancing requirements – that “after all we have been through it isn’t enough just to go back to normal” as “we have lost too much, we have mourned too many”.

The Prime Minister promised a revolution in green power generation, increased home ownership, reforms to the social care system and improvements in education in his speech, which was light on policy detail.

But in the face of Tory unease about the state interventions imposed by the Government as a result of the virus, Mr Johnson insisted they were the only steps he could take.

His speech came on a day when it was revealed that the rate of Covid- 19 infections across the UK has almost doubled in a week, prompting fears that further measures will necessary.

Mr Johnson said: “This Government has been forced by the pandemic into erosions of liberty that we deeply regret and to an expansion in the role of the state from lockdown enforcement to the many bailouts and subsidies that go against our instincts.

“But we accept them because there is simply no reasonable alternative.”

The Prime Minister said the UK economy went into the pandemic with “chronic underlying problems” as he set out a vision for reforms over the next decade.

“In the depths of the Second World War, when just about everything had gone wrong, the Government sketched out a vision of the post- war new Jerusalem that they wanted to build, and that is what we’re doing now, in the teeth of this pandemic.”

He said the Tories would help people take their first step on the housing ladder with 95 per cent mortgages, transforming “generation rent into generation buy” with the greatest expansion of home ownership since the Thatcher era.

Along with reforms to the “sclerotic” planning system, Mr Johnson said: “We need now to take forward one of the key proposals of our manifesto of 2019: giving young, first- time buyers the chance to take out a longterm, fixed- rate mortgage of up to 95 per cent of the value of the home, vastly reducing the size of the deposit.”

This could create two million more owner- occupiers, “the biggest expansion of home ownership since the 1980s”.

In a speech full of ambition but little detail, Mr Johnson promised to “fix the injustice of care home funding” by “bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions”, although aides were unable to set out what he meant.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to explore the use of one-to-one teaching for gifted pupils or those in danger of falling behind, saying it could be “transformational”. And he confirmed plans for the UK to become a world leader in clean energy, with “every home” powered by offshore wind by 2030 – a U- turn on his previous criticism of the power source.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “The British people needed to hear the Prime Minister set out how he and his government will get a grip of the crisis. Instead we got the usual bluster and no plan for the months ahead.”

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director- general, said: “The challenge now is to build a bridge from today’s crisis to the Prime Minister’s future vision. Too many firms are overwhelmed by the enormity of the Covid impact on their cashflow and confidence.”

After all we have been through it isn’t enough just to go back to normal.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his online conference speech.

ENERGY FIRMS have welcomed Government moves which will see more offshore wind deployed before 2030, creating green jobs and putting the UK on the path to meet net zero commitments.

The Prime Minister announced £ 160m to upgrade ports and infrastructure in areas including Teeside and the Humber, as well as doubling the amount of wind power they are asking operators to bid for at the next auction from 6GW to 12GW. The UK produces 10.5GW of energy from offshore wind, which will increase to 40GW by 2030.

Some 1,500 people work in offshore wind on the Humber, including 750 in the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull, which is building 81 metre blades for the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Hornsea Project Two.

Plant manager Andy Sykes said with government support the UK could become a bigger provider to the global market.

The Hull factory exported blades to Belgium this year and has future projects in Germany and Denmark in the pipeline. He said: “We are delighted that the leaps that the industry has made in the speed of deployment, the reduction in price of electricity and the ability to create jobs in many locations in the UK has been recognised by the Prime Minister.”

Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of trade body Renewable UK, said the announcements would give the sector confidence to invest.

She said: “It strengthens the sector and gives it an opportunity for growth.

“Grimsby and Hull are really well placed to benefit from this announcement.”

Associated British Ports also welcomed the news and said they were planning for expansion both in Hull and Grimsby, where 600 people work in operating and maintaining offshore farms. Experts expressed scepticism over promises to power homes with offshore wind by 2030, which would mean switching gas boilers to heat pumps or boilers powered by hydrogen, made using electricity from wind power.

Bikash Pal, professor of power systems at Imperial College London, said building the infrastructure “through a Covid- ruined” economy in just nine years time was a “massive” target.

And trade union Unite said the spending paled into in significance beside the “vast” sums that are being invested by France and Germany.

Assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said more could have been done to invest in the sector, as shown by the closure of the Vestas turbine factory on the Isle of Wight a decade ago. And she warned the Prime Minister’s rhetoric would “turn out to be a mirage”.

The announcement included a target of 1GW to come from floating offshore wind, encouraging development in deeper water, beyond Dogger Bank, a large shallow sandbank, 80 miles off Yorkshire.

Grimsby and Hull are really well placed to benefit from this.

Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of trade body Renewable UK.