29 July 2016

For those looking for some silver lining from the Brexit outcome, there is the good news of the abolition of the Department for Energy and Climate Change and its reabsorption into the Business Department, followed by the announcement of a review of the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point – hours before, it seems, contracts were due to be signed. For a review of the disaster that has been British electricity policy, see the ‘The Cost of Preventing Blackouts’ by John Constable. And for a review of the expensive folly of Hinkley Point, see the Prospect article ‘The Folly of Hinkley’ by Simon Taylor and Bronwen Maddox. Time, perhaps, also for a more thoughtful reassessment of the two other large infrastructure projects on the agenda – HS2 and London Airport expansion. We need much more infrastructure investment, but should not fall victim to politicians’ liking of grossly over-specified ‘grands projects’.