Has the UK forgotten how to do big projects?

The last week of March 2023 marked 60 years since the publication of the Beeching Report.

Richard Beeching - whose name is only ever uttered through gritted teeth in transport policy circles - was the chair of the board of British Railways, and his report recommended the closure of a third of the nation’s railway stations (more than 2,000) and 5,000 miles of railway.

It can often feel as though we’ve spent the intervening time trying to undo the damage of those cuts.

In the North East, a portion of railway closed by Beeching was reopened with the metro extension to South Hylton in 2002, the Northumberland Line is due to reopen next year, and discussions are ongoing surrounding the Leamside Line in Co. Durham.

In each case, lines deemed surplus to requirements in the 1960s have had some compelling business cases built for them since.

At least a second phase of Beeching’s plan never came to pass, where he planned to divert the East Coast Mainline to stop trains running north of Newcastle - as can be clearly seen in the below photo (from Network Rail’s website here)!

A revisionist view of Beeching’s plans was that it was the first time a truly nationwide, strategic approach was taken to rail in the Britain, and that it allowed more rational planning to take place subsequently.

That’s perhaps charitable, especially when you consider the difficulty with which the country goes about large scale projects.

The National Audit Office recently reported that HS2’s Euston terminus project has ballooned to £2bn over budget and is further delayed so high speed trains now won’t run into the centre of London until 2035 at the earliest, and perhaps not until the 2040s.

That will mean a 25-30 year gestation for a project initially explored in earnest when HS2 Ltd was formed in 2009.

The project beyond Birmingham has already been slimmed back, with the eastern leg to Leeds (which delivered the main benefits to the North East) dropping off plans and out of budgets, and portions of the western leg to Crewe being cut back too.

You can put HS2 alongside plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, which started as a brand new rail line, and then turned into a series of upgrades at various points across the band of towns and cities from Liverpool to Hull.

Far from a great stride into the future of rail travel in this country, with rail services in the North West crumbling, the investments now feel closer to just the minimum necessary upgrades or modernisation in order to maintain a functioning rail network.

As a whole, it contributes to a feeling that the UK no longer knows how to deliver big, ambitious public infrastructure projects.

In the period since January 2012, when the then Transport Secretary Justine Greening announced HS2 would be built in two phases - the first being the 140 mile stretch from London to Birmingham - France has built and opened 350 miles of new LGV line, with a further 550 miles of new high speed line planned there before the first HS2 train is expected to arrive at Euston.

These problems aren’t restricted to transport either, there’s an equal failure to grasp the nettles of energy infrastructure, health and social care reform or the childcare system.

So, why is this the case? What’s the problem?

Firstly, short-termism.

Lots has been written about how a culture of short-termism infiltrates policymaking.

Back in 2020, Jill Rutter of the Institute for Government, in conversation with the Health Foundation pointed to the obvious issue of the electoral cycle, but also “the problem of getting to grips with the future and uncertainty – it is easier to act within the realms of the known, than to plan for the unknown.”

But it’s not a recent problem, a post on 2013 LSE’s Politics and Policy blog by visiting professor Ian Marsh blamed hollowed out political parties and a modern marketing approach to political communication for shortening policy horizons.

And back in the dizzy, early days of the Cameron government, Victor Anderson of WWF even proposed constitutional and legal reform in a piece for the Guardian as a way to get around the problem of short-termism in transitioning to a green economy.

Alongside short-termism, it’s worth noting the problem of distractions too.

In 2014, we had a Scottish independence referendum. In 2015, a general election. In 2016, the EU referendum. In 2017, another general election. In 2018, Theresa May’s government was found in contempt of Parliament and faced no confidence votes. In 2019, we had a change of Prime Minister and yet another general election. In 2020, we had the pandemic and first round of response. In 2021, more lockdowns and partygate. In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an energy crisis, inflation and two new Prime Ministers.

If there was ever such a thing as ‘politics-as-usual’, we’ve long since forgotten what that looks like.

But that backdrop of instability and uncertainty really only highlights the need for bold and imaginative government.