A fleet of JCBs can’t dig us out of this recession

The government will do almost anything to kick-start the economy - including paving over Britain's countryside. But, it won't work, says Matthew Lynn. Here, he explains why.

The longer the economy is flat on its back and the UK is now heading into a fifth year of recession or very low growth the more desperate the government will get to find any way of pumping life into it. We've already seen calls for massive spending on infrastructure, despite the fact that, the London airport aside, there is very little evidence that the UK suffers from any shortage of roads or railways.

We've seen dozens of ideas for the Bank of England to prop up businesses by giving them freshly minted money. The latest wheeze is to rip up the planning laws and allow developers to pave over the countryside with new factories, offices and branches of Tesco Metro. The trouble is, it is not going to work.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.