Build Back Better: why can’t we build anything at all?

Recorded at the Buxton Battle of Ideas festival 2022 on Saturday 5 November at Devonshire Dome, Buxton.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

During the pandemic, the government launched a policy paper, Build Back Better: Our Plan for Growth, ‘setting out the government’s plans to support economic growth through significant investment in infrastructure, skills and innovation’. In his foreword, the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, declared that ‘we must grasp the historic opportunity before us: to learn the lessons of this awful pandemic and build back better, levelling up across our United Kingdom and fixing the problems that have held back too many people for too long’.

Yet from housing to airports, power stations to reservoirs, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to build very much at all. Any sort of development is met with resistance from people accused of being NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). In short, even if those people think that a particular development is a good idea in principle, they don’t want it to be too close to where they live. And with MPs unwilling to upset constituents, this seems to be a powerful lobby.

But while NIMBYs are a long-standing problem, another kind of objection is from environmentalists who seek to hold the government to its promise of ‘Net Zero’ greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. If we are to eliminate emissions and ‘save the planet’, then anything from fracking to an extra runway can be called into question.

Even when major infrastructure works do get the go-ahead, they seem routinely beset by delays. Work on London’s Elizabeth Line started in 2009, but the core section only opened in May 2022. The high-speed rail line between London and northern England – HS2 – is still years behind schedule, truncated and massively over budget. Even maintaining infrastructure seems difficult, with news that Doncaster Sheffield Airport is threatened with closure.

If we really want plentiful, affordable housing, modern infrastructure and a thriving economy, what are the barriers to be overcome? How can we ‘build back better’?

SPEAKERS
Simon Cooke
urbanist; former regeneration portfolio holder and leader of the Conservative group, Bradford City Council

Rosamund Cuckston
senior HR professional; co-organiser, Birmingham Salon

Dr Caspar Hewett
lecturer and degree programme director, Water Group, EuroAquae+, School of Engineering, Newcastle University; director, The Great Debate

Gawain Towler
consultant; former director of communications, Brexit Party

CHAIR
Austin Williams
senior lecturer, Dept of Architecture, Kingston University, London; honorary research fellow, XJTLU, Suzhou, China; author, China’s Urban Revolution: understanding Chinese eco-cities