Moths, my jumpers, grand plans, and the UK economy

During lockdown I’ve been wearing more pullovers than usual and discovering just how far the moths have munched their way through the ones at the bottom of the drawer.

So, it’s time to do a bit of darning.

And that’s what the economy needs too. Like my jumper, it’s still holding together. We’re still getting food and other essentials—and soon even non-essentials.

But even so, the economic fabric is full of holes. Like all those pubs and restaurants that will never open again. Events and travel businesses. Sports venues and theatres.

I don’t need to knit myself a new jumper. And we don’t need to build, build, build a new economy. Particularly when it is politicians and officials, not real people, who are doing the building. The waste and delay in public projects is notorious.

Where we do need to build, it is pettifogging planning rules that prevent it. We could create millions of new homes by building higher, more densely, and out. And that would make urban living affordable to millions of young people who are priced out. But our planning system is still stuck in 1947.

Likewise with businesses. We need new enterprises to patch into the holes that the lockdown has created. But high taxes magnify the risk of starting up a new business. And regulations simply cannot deal with new and different ways of doing things.

So, forget the grand designs. Patch things up where it matters by getting tax and regulations out of the way of new business.