Craig David

Exclusive with @Jess_Shankleman @ChaplainChloe Andy Burnham has asked the civil service to prepare announcements on new drilling in the North Sea and public control of Thames Water within days of taking office. Government officials are drawing up plans for energy and water that can be announced as soon as next week, aimed at quickly demonstrating Burnham’s commitment to delivering change, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials are working on a range of options. They include signalling willingness to approve new oil and gas fields at Jackdaw and Rosebank, and an expansion of so-called tie-backs which allow further drilling on or near existing fields. No final decision has been made on what form the North Sea announcement will take, but Burnham is likely to indicate he is in favour of more drilling, the people said.  A complicating factor is that public consultations have been launched on Jackdaw and Rosebank it’s hard for him to formally approve them before they have finished. Government officials expect him to ultimately back at least Jackdaw. New North Sea drilling may be welcomed by Trump and trade unions but it could provoke criticism from environmentalists and some on the Labour left. The Greens may also seek to take advantage. One official says approving Jackdaw and Rosebank wouldn’t breach Labour’s manifesto pledge to ban new licenses to explore new oil and gas fields. Jackdaw’s license was granted under the previous Conservative government so doesn’t require a new one. Burnham’s aides have also tasked the civil service with preparing an announcement on the public control of Thames Water. They have told officials they want to make water a priority. One of the options being readied by officials is putting Thames into special administration, a form of temporary nationalisation. Some working on the transition plans think Burnham will proceed with that outcome. Burnham is also understood to be interested in pursuing an approach similar to mutualisation which would see water companies converted into not-for-profit cooperatives owned and run for the benefit of customers. The approach is favoured by Burnham, with supporters of the measure arguing it would not cost the government the eye-watering amounts that straightforward nationalisation would. He has been presented with plans for how this can be achieved. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

‘We are going to lose everything. We’ve been trying to warn you guys for so many decades. We’re not lying. We’re not exaggerating’’ When NASA scientist @ClimateHuman risked his liberty to try and wake people up to the threat of climate change