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A new digital economy


I appreciate how important broadband is to residents and businesses in Wycombe. Fast, reliable broadband is now seen as the norm in an advanced economy, not a luxury. It underpins economic growth and allows us to function in a digital age. Over 90 per cent of UK premises are now able to connect to superfast broadband, and we are on track to reach 95 per cent by the end of next year. This means that the UK has the highest superfast broadband […]

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HS2: Update


I have continuously campaigned against a second state-funded high speed rail programme. It is slowly transpiring that the business case is collapsing. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) for phase 1 has fallen from 2.4 in March 2010 to just 1.2 today and 1.4 for the whole of the Y spur extension. A fifth downgrade is expected to be released in the summer incorporating the new, lower GDP figures. How low do the figures need to go until policy makers understand […]

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Survival of the unfittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built—and what we can do about it


Via Survival of the unfittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built—and what we can do about it: […] Taken together, the UK and US studies both account well for existing data on cost underestimation and benefit overestimation. Both studies falsify the notion that in situations with high political and organizational pressure the underestimation of costs and overestimation of benefits is caused by non-intentional technical error or optimism bias. Both studies support the view that in such situations promoters and forecasters […]

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