Helm Talks - energy climate infrastructure & more15 Jun

Why can't we build infrastructure in this country?

Politicians have been seeking for decades to put right the infrastructure crisis in this country that is rooted not in a lack of ambition, but in deeper economic and political constraints. Building in Britain is exceptionally costly, with high energy prices, high labour costs and high financing costs making major projects difficult to deliver at scale. At the same time, the country saves too little to fund long-term investment, leaving infrastructure heavily reliant on foreign capital, while government is constrained by debt and rising interest payments, and repeatedly prioritises short-term spending over capital renewal. Taking Thames Water as a case study, regulatory hesitation and political short-termism have both delayed necessary restructuring and entrenched decline. Meaningful renewal will require more than rhetoric: it demands lower input costs, stronger incentives to save and invest, firmer control of public debt, and a clear political willingness to favour long-term capital investment over immediate consumption. Without a whole-economy approach, the goal will remain elusive.

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Episoder(90)

Crisis? What crisis?

The International Energy Agency describes the current Iran conflict as the “biggest energy crisis in history”. While oil prices have risen sharply, they remain below the real highs of past shocks. How...

27 Mai 14min

Britain's negative-sum society

The concept of a zero-sum game was fashionable in the 1970s. The idea was simple: competing interest groups, and especially unions, would fight for ever-bigger shares of the nation’s cake, and their g...

17 Mai 14min

No such thing as free electricity

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24 Apr 11min

Sticky plaster energy policy is falling apart

Another day and another bit of sticky plaster is applied. With the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, the government is increasing the number of companies that will get a bit off...

20 Apr 15min

Gas prices, gas mistakes and gas policy

The news is very much about gas price shocks, but this is to misunderstand the fundamental difference between temporary shocks and long-term trends. Gas prices spike when major geopolitical events occ...

24 Mar 13min

Britain's industrial energy price crisis

Britain is facing a deep industrial energy price crisis, with many major industries collapsing or shrinking because UK electricity costs are among the highest in the world. Recent closures—from refine...

17 Mar 15min

The energy security gap

The International Energy Agency, at its recent ministerial meeting (Feb 18th/19th), agreed on one top priority: energy security. Hybrid warfare, cyber-attacks and the ease with which modern energy inf...

24 Feb 15min