Little space for long-term capital investment vision in election promises

Electioneering is all about snappy promises and clever sound bites. There is little space for setting out a long-term vision. There are few votes in talking about sewers, drains or reservoirs, yet our capital investment spending is likely to determine the country’s prosperity 10 or 20 years down the line.

Spending on infrastructure all but collapsed after the 2008 crash.

This, in turn, delayed the roll-out of flood-relief programmes, the consequences of which have been there for all to see in recent months.