Malthouse is full of praise for the response from Whitehall and the emergency services to last week’s heatwave, including an information campaign to ensure “the public was prepared” and ensure “we had the capacity that we needed in 999”.
In the longer term, dramatic weather such as the 104F (40C) temperatures experienced in Britain last week raises “all sorts of questions about how they cope with extremes of heat and cold”.
Work being carried out in the Government includes examining possible “adaptations” to help transport networks cope with extreme weather conditions, including looking at whether the composition of roads should be changed to prevent surfaces melt at high temperatures.
“The tarmac you’re on a country road in Scotland and the underlay of the road is not the same as the M25. And it’s not the same as it would be in Sicily, where it’s regularly over 40 degrees during the day.”
The railways may also need to be adjusted, he says, pointing to Italy where “they put more concrete on the sleepers, which grips the rail more firmly. There are those kinds of things that maybe we should think about.”
Individuals can play their part in reducing global warming by planting trees, says Malthouse, who has been MP for North West Hampshire since 2015.
“If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, plant a tree. I think it was Heseltine, who did “plant a tree in ’73”. Well, plant a tree in 2023 is the message, because they help. Green infrastructure can help.”
Malthouse is determined to divert the cabinet’s focus from Covid
With “a variety of issues to be resolved,” Mr. Malthouse is determined to shift the overwhelming focus of the Cabinet Office away from Covid.
“The engine at the moment is actually pretty good, and my predecessors have built a pretty good engine,” he says. “But it is one that is recovering from Covid.
“During the pandemic he was very focused on his Covid work. And dealing with that particular national international emergency was a great moment for the Cabinet Office. And he did remarkable things.
“But now is the time to move away from that kind of big single-focus activity and take a look at all these other things.”
In addition to addressing the “hornets”, which Mr. Malthouse aims to do by ensuring effective coordination and ‘coherence’ between the relevant arms of government, he focuses on the so-called ‘orcas’.
“These are the big projects that sit out there under the surface, waiting to break above the waves and rip your arm off. Big projects with a lot of money involved, often requiring very sophisticated leadership and management.
“And we just need to make sure that we have the risk properly assessed for a new prime minister.”
He gives the example of the new communications network to be used by the emergency services, with costs running into “hundreds of millions, if not billions of pounds”.
“We just need to make sure that this goes well, that a new Prime Minister can be confident in the cost and the time frame he’s been given, and that it won’t absorb the capacity and energy of the Government to deal with a problem . We’ve seen big IT projects in the past that haven’t been planned for. And they have a way of derailing entire departments if they’re wrong.”
HS2 “definitely” on the list
Is HS2, which has been beset by spiraling costs and timetable delays, one of the killer whales?
“This is a big project and it’s definitely on the list, yes.”
“HS2 is obviously making significant progress,” he continues. But he adds: “What I want is for a new prime minister to come in, who can call me Kit, what should I worry about? That’s the exercise we’ll be doing for the next four to six weeks.”
When Johnson’s successor is in place, Malthouse believes “there is a chance that we can go for a simplified tax regime, which will reduce the burden on our fellow citizens and their businesses and the businesses they work for”.
But, he warns: “We can only achieve this if we are willing to be very clear about what we spend their money on. At the moment, given the burden people have to shoulder, we have to ask very hard questions about whether everything what we’re spending money on is so important, and if we should also pull the horns on the spending side.”
With neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak currently talking about spending cuts, perhaps Mr. Malthouse can expect a call to the bridge if the winner of the contest enters at No. 10 in September and concludes that such an approach is necessary after all.
Whether the Cabinet Office will work at “warp speed” to implement cuts to itself and other parts of Whitehall is another matter.