Worries about Britain’s construction crunch are overdone
Stop worrying and learn to love the labour market

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to run a government for the builders, not the blockers. Certainly, the prime minister and his colleagues have given the builders a lot to do. Alongside commitments at the election to build 1.5m homes and decarbonise the electricity grid within five years, the government has also revived several megaprojects, including a new rail line connecting Oxford to Cambridge and a third runway at Heathrow.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Plan it and the builders will come”
Britain
February 8th 2025- Oxford and Cambridge are too small
- Milton Keynes shows the rest of Britain how to grow
- Worries about Britain’s construction crunch are overdone
- Britain’s plan to shake up school inspections pleases no one
- British “equal value” lawsuits have become an absurd denial of markets
- Speeches in Britain’s Parliament are getting shorter—and worse
- Must Leeds always lose?

From the February 8th 2025 edition
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