The repair kit

Twelve chapters is a lot to carry in your head. Before we open up the financial plumbing in Section 4, here’s the plan stripped down to its bones. This is the bit you should still be able to tell your mates in the pub six months from now.

Everything in this report answers one of four old excuses.

“We can’t afford it. The bond markets won’t allow it.” Fund it off-market. The traders who can dump and run don’t get a vote.

“Energy and housing are commodities. Pay the market price.” Treat them as infrastructure. Price them at cost.

“Gig work is just modern flexibility.” Guarantee the pipeline of work. Gig work gets replaced by a skilled trade.

“Libraries and pools are luxuries we can’t justify.” One public asset does the job of ten thousand private ones. For a fraction of the cost.

Text description of The repair kit: 4 excuses, 4 fixes

Excuse: “We can’t afford it. The bond markets won’t allow it.” Fix: fund it off-market. The traders who can dump and run don’t get a vote.

Excuse: “Energy and housing are commodities. Pay the market price.” Fix: treat them as infrastructure. Price them at cost.

Excuse: “Gig work is just modern flexibility.” Fix: guarantee the pipeline of work. Gig work gets replaced by a skilled trade.

Excuse: “Libraries and pools are luxuries we can’t justify.” Fix: one public asset does the job of ten thousand private ones, for a fraction of the cost.

Take the money question first. We allow tax relief only on savings that are used to invest in Britain: National Infrastructure ISAs for citizens and National Development Stock for pensions.  We smooth the supply with Exchequer Notes. Different tools, same job, all covered in detail in chapters 14, 15 and 18. They fund Britain without going near the secondary market that turned your housing into a hostage during the Truss crisis. The gilt market continues. What changes is that new investment can proceed without it.

We use it to build real assets. Treat energy, housing and transport as infrastructure, not commodities, and the numbers change. The Retrofit Blitz – insulating every home – was projected in modelling submitted to Parliament to boost GDP by £3.20 for every £1 of public investment. The CBI says every £1 invested in construction adds £2.92 to GDP. Even the OBR’s cautious estimate says every public pound invested returns 40p to the Treasury in tax. Whichever figure is used, projects that fail a private investor’s profit test make financial sense for the country.

The same money pays the wages. Twenty-year pipelines don’t just fund the housing and energy programmes, they fund the jobs to build them. That’s the difference between gig-app anxiety and a trade you can plan a life around.

And what’s left over goes back to the street. A free sports centre and municipal pool does more for a town than ten thousand people each buying their own gym membership. That’s not charity. It’s just better maths.

“Fund it safely. Build what matters. Pay people fairly. Spend what’s left on the places we all share.”

Everything from here is the how.