Health and safety rules holding UK infrastructure back, says writer of government report

Exclusive: John Fingleton says regulators need to change their attitude to risk to end the country’s economic stagnation

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.

John Fingleton, who recently wrote a report for government on how to encourage developers to build new nuclear power plants, told the Guardian 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.”