Home / The evidence / Why Britain can't build
Consequence
From power projects to housing, Britain struggles to build. This looks at why, and why the cause may sit upstream in the constitution.
The signs are everywhere. A solar and battery project in County Durham was given a grid connection date of 2036. The government accepts that some projects wait up to fifteen years to connect, and that the queue of firms wanting a connection grew by 460% in six months. Britain often has the money and the plan and still cannot get permission to plug in.
The emblem of the problem is a single structure on HS2, a bat protection tunnel that cost around £100m, one of more than 8,000 consents the project had to obtain. The human and financial detail is on the human cost and the evidence page.
On the Starkey account the binding constraint is not money but a permission system that no minister controls and no voter can shift, built from environmental law, judicial review and arm's-length bodies. That is why the decline may sit upstream of the economics, the argument made on cause and effect.
Others point to under-investment, high energy costs and planning politics that predate any constitutional change. The constitution is one cause among several, not the only one.
Projects face long waits for grid connections, extensive environmental consents and the risk of legal challenge, on top of planning delays and funding constraints.
A structure built to protect bats on the HS2 route, reported to cost around £100m, often cited as an example of how consenting rules can drive up costs.
The government has said some projects wait up to fifteen years to connect, and the queue grew sharply in 2025.
