Those wasted assets are worth around £4 billion. They should be sold off to increase the housing supply and reduce the National Debt.
“Our long term health depends on being a low tax economy,” the Chancellor adds. “I very strongly believe that.”
Some Tory members would see such a development as nothing less than an establishment coup: as a conspiracy of bad actors working together to win revenge for Brexit.
Are we in recession? Of course not. The ONS has in fact just uprated its growth forecast, and the IMF now admits that Kwarteng’s reforms will boost growth.
The ineptitude of its start has contaminated voter views of centre-right values as well as the Conservatives’ opinion poll ratings.
These may take time to bear fruit, but must reassure the markets now that the growth path in expenditure will be measurably lower. Such measures must involve doing less, as well as doing things differently.
Liberalisations of land-use planning, infrastructure, energy, and childcare rules are crucial to improve economic mobility, deepen our domestic market, and raise productivity.
And that energy bill support scheme, so disliked by some prominent Truss backers? Ninety per cent of the panel back it.
Cutting the 45p rate puts fresh pressure on the SNP’s revenue-hostile policies; spending cuts will squeeze their budgets again.
At a macro-level, it reinforces prudence and affordability. But at a micro-level, it can be an obstacle to speed, efficiency and innovation.
Even with growth, shrinking state spending as a share of GDP will require serious reforms and cuts to government programmes.
But there are truths in life – for example, that a stich in time saves nine, beggars can’t be choosers…and that you can’t spend more than your earn. His premiership ends with record spending and taxes.
The problem facing Britain is not that prices are too high, but that the safety net – which Tories have always supported – is too low.
The outgoing prime minister was too often prepared to resort to big-state solutions which warped public expectations.
Decades of EU funding mechanisms, and centralised policymaking with multiple objectives for farmers, have left us lagging behind.