The Green New Deal group was in the Guardian this morning:
One of the justifications for the coalition's cuts is the pretence that they are needed to pay for more infrastructure projects (Editorial, 27 June). Yet the emphasis on new roads and HS2 will be cost-escalating and take money away from the kind of local infrastructure spending that would result in economic activity nationwide. This in turn could be fairly taxed and so get rid of the need for cuts, while helping rescue our flagging economy.
Tens of billions spent on low-carbon infrastructure and affordable housing would generate jobs, business and investment opportunities in every city, town, village and hamlet in the UK. Making every building in the UK energy-efficient and repairing, maintaining and improving the public transport system could prioritise the use of UK manufacturers. A crackdown on tax dodgers would make billions available to pump prime such an initiative. The result would be a reduction in public debt through a programme that improves society, the environment and the economy — the very opposite of the present cuts.
Colin Hines
Convener, Green New Deal Group
Quite so.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
I am OK with the message of the first paragraph because the investment of billions of pounds in HS2 with a very flimsy business case seems reckless to me.
But my same fear applies to the second case because “tens of billions” would generate jobs, business and investments opportunities. Oh yes? Who knows? To my knowledge I know of no country in the world where this is working.
But It’s worth a look I think.My proposal therefore is to invest in experiments with millions rather than billions in regional areas and measure the effects. Let’s get some science into this rather than aspirations.