It's behind you! (Photo by Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

It would appear that Maria Miller, Conservative MP for Basingstoke, did not get the Prime Ministerās memo. āStill time to sign my ‘Slow It Down’ petition calling on the Borough Council to drastically reduce housing targets,ā she tweeted on Friday, a mere two days after Liz Truss launched her crusade against the āanti-growth coalitionā in her party conference speech.
āI have three priorities for our economy: growth, growth and growth,ā Truss said, pressing her foot on the accelerator. āOur community wants this rapid growth to slow down,ā said Miller, stamping on the brake. āWe will make it easier to build homes,ā Truss said, bearing down on the great furnace bellows of British growth. āThe next local plan must cut new house-building levels in half,ā Miller countered, pouring cold water on the few weak, fading embers that remain. Truss might as well have slapped on the rouge, minced onto the conference hall stage as a pantomime dame and invited the audience to proclaim āItās behind you!ā to identify members of the anti-growth coalition.
In her speech, Truss listed opposition parties, militant unions, think tanks with vested interests, talking heads, āBrexit deniersā and environmental activists as constituent parts of the anti-growth coalition. If thatās what makes up the anti-growth coalition, all of these interests are certainly very powerful; our economic growth rate has been woeful for the last decade and a half. But one might note these groups ā also the stock bogeymen of the Tory faithful ā havenāt held the keys to Downing Street for the last 12 years. They certainly play a role, but itās easy to paint a target on your political enemies. Itās far harder to paint a target on your friends and allies.
The awkward truth left unsaid is that the anti-growth coalition contains more than just members from the āthe other sideā. Truss failed to mention that some of its most powerful members were in that very conference hall: the Conservative activist base, voter coalition and, yes, even Tory MPs. Miller is just a timely and particularly diametric example, but a quick search will find example, after example, after example, after example, after example, after example of Tory MPs opposing growth ā from houses to solar panel installations to new supermarkets ā in the face of local opposition from prospective Conservative voters.
They pose in front of derelict industrial wastelands saved from āinappropriate developmentā with elderly, homeowning activists holding Conservative campaign signs, all grinning like Alsatians. And the Tory councillors are no better. If anything, it’s even easier to find councillor, after councillor, after councillor, after councillor proudly claiming ownership of blocking developments. The so-called talking heads from think tanks that Truss identified often ponder on panels why Britainās growth rate has been anaemic for so long, all pensively stating āitās a complex, multifaceted issueā relating to obscure legislative frameworks or some other skills policy minutiae.
But thereās no great mystery. We havenāt grown because we refuse to build infrastructure and housing in our most productive regions and cities, strangling the supply of workers to well-paying, productive jobs, and increasing operational costs. The nation that once produced great Victorian engineers of Isambard Kingdom Brunelās calibre has lost its nerve and taste for economic progress.
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