This - via @kim_harding - is both fascinating and annoying
It lists the numbers showing that UK infra projects cost so much, but do not really begin to answer WHY this is the case
https://www.samdumitriu.com/p/britains-infrastructure-is-too-expensive
There's a lot of "hums" and "ahs" in any construction project in the UK, dragging it forever: rights of way, rights of light, points of interest, historic sites, neighbourhood consultations that drag for years – many of these are legit, yet not agile, and incumbents, the status quo, tends to have the upper hand – and then also LLCs that take the government money and go bust, and mushroom up as another LLC the next day. Change may require a revolution.
@jon @kim_harding Reading between the lines it is probably mainly down to political tinkering with the specifications whilst the project is running, forcing redesigns and all the attendant specialist reports, breaks in contracts, wasted spending on unused equipment and materials etc..
I also have a suspicion that we have more of a culture of spending over the odds on management and other consultancies.
@jon @kim_harding actually, it should be a national scandal! I was literally reading that open mouthed...
I guess it relates to this piece I saw in the @FT this week too..
The Nimby tax on Britain and America - https://on.ft.com/3QXE3Tw via @FT
@jon @kim_harding this might be might favourite.part though
"
In fact, Norway built the world’s longest road tunnel and the world’s deepest subsea tunnel for less than the LTC’s planning application. Norway’s geology is favourable for tunnelling, yet this comparison isn’t tunnelling under the Thames versus tunnelling under Norway’s hard rock. It is applying for planning permission to tunnel under the Thames versus actually tunnelling in Norway. "
😲😱😲🤯🤯
UK and US have one thing in common, that is barely mentioned in the article but plays huge role in this “NIMBY tax” - it’s massive overgrowth of the legal sector, which now controls nearly every aspect of life in these countries. And since legal services are also very expensive, as access to these professions is carefully guarded, this also creates huge inequality in what you can do or what you can say, because your chances in a libel lawsuit are dictated only by how many laweyer-hours you can afford.
In the infrastructure project extortion business, majority of every pound spent by the public to fight the endless protests ends up with the legal companies, while the actual land owners accept whatever share these offer them, believing that’s more than they would get in the first place.
And it’s not only about public infrastructure - symbolically, modern anti-vaccine movement started from a medical fraud Andrew Wakefield (then MD) getting contracted by solicitors to procure a medical study which they could use in court to obtain compensation from MMR vaccine manufacturers… And then they switched to talcum, glyphosate, mobile phones, “did you have an accident that wasn’t your fault” calls etc etc.
And an example from the environmental extortion sector - in 2017 ClientEarth on behalf of Greenpeace Energy e.V. in Germany sued European Commission for allowing public funding for Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in United Kingdom and the justification was - wait for this - “as a potential competitor on the energy market”:
In this case the claim was dismissed, in many others the legal company specialising in such environmental claims just gets paid and signs an agreement. As a reminder, Greenpeace Energy e.V. is a daughter cooperative of Greenpeace Germany specialising in reselling fossil gas with CO2 intensity of ~500 gCO2eq/kWh. And they sued a nuclear power plant (12 gCO2eq/kWh) for being a “potential competitor on the energy market”…
The European Court of Justice has confirmed the inadmissibility of Greenpeace Energy’s application for annulment of the Commission’s decision approving State aid for the nuclear power plant, Hinkley Point C.
@jon @kim_harding
I have concerns about Britain Remade who leaders have been involved in RW think tanks.
Rt john Burn-Murdoch
NEW: we need to talk about the dire state of British transport infrastructure.
Of the 52 UK cities with 250k+ people, only 8 (15%) have a tram or metro.
In France & Germany it’s 80%, Poland is on 60%.
Even *American* cities are better served, and the US hates public transit
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1695034745871032609.html
Jon Worth
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Ruth Mottram
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