The UK's planning pickle

The discretionary planning system is a barrier to growth, but reformists must ruffle feathers to get results.

Among the most basic economic activities of all is to build on vacant land. From the US railroad boom in the 1870s, to the concrete jungles that spread over China from the 1990s, economic development is reflected as much in physical capital as in technology or education. Both Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Architectural Digest highlight how buildings span the most basic desire for shelter, as well as our need for individual expression.

Did the UK miss the memo? Anxieties about the UK’s inadequate stock of physical infrastructure, from housing to railways and energy, have permeated the political discourse. Looking at prices, policymakers are right to worry. Since 1970, real house prices have risen more in the UK than in any other rich country. Yet despite higher prices, the supply of new housing has fallen and the history of big UK infrastructure projects is littered with expensive boondoggles.