IEA Podcast

In this Institute of Economic Affairs interview, IEA Managing Editor Daniel Freeman speaks with Dr Valentin Boboc, Senior Economist at the IEA, about Britain’s infrastructure problem and why the country has become so slow and expensive at building. The conversation is part of a series accompanying the IEA’s new book, The Great Stagnation: Why Britain Stopped Growing, out on 2nd September, to which Dr Boboc has contributed a chapter.

Dr Boboc explains how Britain moved from the rapid railway expansion of the Victorian era to a planning system defined by lengthy approvals, an ever expanding list of statutory consultees, and unpredictable, open ended costs. He argues that a single point of approval sits alongside a near limitless number of bodies able to demand mitigations, driving up costs without anyone weighing them against each other. Using HS2 and the associated “bat tunnel” as examples, he sets out how conservation and amenity demands from local campaigners can add huge sums with little central coordination. He also compares UK costs unfavourably with countries such as Norway, Japan and France, and highlights the Lower Thames Crossing’s approvals bill as an example of money spent before any construction begins. The discussion closes with reflections on how centralising financial risk within the Treasury discourages private investment, and what reforms, such as reducing statutory consultees and diversifying who can promote infrastructure projects, might help.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Managing Editor Daniel Freeman is joined by Editorial Director Dr Kristian Niemietz and Head of Lifestyle Economics Dr Christopher Snowdon. The panel discusses New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for state-owned grocery stores, Andy Burnham’s proposed reforms to secondary school education, and the Reform Party’s decision to report Green Party leader Zack Polanski to the police.

The discussion opens with Mamdani’s pledge to sell goods 30% below market price in five city-owned stores, with Niemietz and Snowdon examining why the policy is likely to run into supply and cost problems, and why it functions more as a political message than a workable solution. They contrast this with the economic distinction between subject subsidies, where the state gives people money to spend as they choose, and object subsidies, where the state directly provides or subsidises a good, and explain why most economists favour the former. The conversation then turns to Burnham’s proposal to let 14 year olds pursue technical and vocational pathways in schools, set against the backdrop of NEET numbers passing one million in the UK. Niemietz and Snowdon disagree over whether the underlying problem is one of education supply or labour market demand, touching on youth unemployment, the minimum wage, and the Employment Rights Act. The episode closes with a discussion of the row over a T-shirt referencing violence against Nigel Farage, reported to the police by Reform after Polanski shared an image of it, and what the episode reveals about the state of free speech debate in Britain.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, IEA Managing Editor Daniel Freeman speaks with Dr Kristian Niemietz, IEA Editorial Director, about his chapter in the forthcoming book The Great Stagnation. The conversation covers why Britain has struggled to build almost anything for decades, from housing to lab space to supermarkets, and how this shortage of building land helps explain the country’s weak economic growth.

Kristian explains how the rationing of building land dates back to the nationalisation of development rights in the late 1940s, and how this has left Britain with smaller and fewer homes per person than most of Western Europe, a shortfall he puts at around 5 million houses. He argues this isn’t a problem of physical space, since only around a tenth of land in Britain is developed, but a political failure to release land in the places where growth is happening. The discussion also covers how the same constraints hit commercial and retail space, choking off growth in productive areas like Cambridge, and considers pushback points including why growth held up through the 1980s and 90s despite the same planning laws, and whether recent political enthusiasm for building more will actually be followed through. Kristian ends by rating land use regulation as roughly an eight out of ten barrier to UK economic growth.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, IEA Director of Communications Callum Price is joined by Director General Lord Hannan and Head of Lifestyle Economics Dr Christopher Snowdon to discuss the first days of Andy Burnham’s premiership, Britain’s welfare crisis, and the reshuffle at the Department of Energy and Net Zero.

The conversation opens with Burnham’s early policy moves, including the VAT cut on domestic fuel and the bus fare cap, before turning to the wider economic philosophy behind “Burnhamism” and its scepticism of 1980s privatisation. Lord Hannan and Dr Snowdon debate whether Burnham can govern within his own fiscal rules and backbench pressures, and whether an early general election is now more likely than markets expect. The discussion then turns to Britain’s welfare bill, examining why nearly one in four Britons now claim some form of disability, the incentives created by the benefits system since the pandemic, and the case for reform. The episode closes with a look at the new Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero following Ed Miliband’s move to the Foreign Office, and what her background at the New Economics Foundation could mean for North Sea licensing, fracking, and the future of Britain’s net zero strategy.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support to any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

Institute of Economic Affairs Managing Editor Daniel Freeman is joined by economic historian Tyler Goodspeed to discuss his chapter in the forthcoming book The Great Stagnation: Why Britain Stopped Growing. Their conversation examines why the UK economy never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, and makes the case that post-crisis bank regulation, not austerity or planning laws, is the key driver of Britain’s growth slowdown.

Tyler explains that the UK is now around 30% poorer than it would have been on its pre-2008 trend, and would rank as the poorest US state if it were one. He argues that the real culprit is a near two-decade credit crunch: Basel Accord capital rules pushed up the cost of lending to small and medium-sized businesses, and because British firms rely far more heavily on banks for financing than their American counterparts, the effect has hit UK growth much harder. The discussion covers why rejection rates on business loan applications have climbed sharply, why this has produced a long tail of low-productivity firms unable to scale, and what policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic could do differently, from being honest about regulatory trade-offs to moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to bank capital requirements.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs briefing, IEA Director of Communications Callum Price speaks with Senior Economist Dr Valentin Boboc about a letter the IEA sent to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, setting out eight policies he could introduce in his first 100 days in office. They discuss reforming the non-dom tax regime, releasing greenbelt land near railway stations, accelerating the Fingleton Review, and raising childcare staffing ratios towards continental norms.

The conversation also covers pausing yet-to-commence provisions of the Employment Rights Act, recognising the decisions of trusted foreign regulators to speed up drug and technology approvals, removing tariffs on consumer goods to ease the cost of living, and scrapping vehicle excise duty in favour of a road pricing system. Throughout, Callum and Valentin stress that each proposal comes at little to no cost to the Exchequer, making them realistic options for a Government inheriting a public debt of nearly 90% of GDP and almost no fiscal headroom.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Managing Editor Daniel Freeman is joined by Editorial Director Dr Kristian Niemietz and Senior Economist Dr Valentin Boboc to break down three taxes that dominated the news this week: the wealth tax, new customs duties on small parcels, and the land value tax.

They start with the wealth tax, prompted by Gary Stevenson’s Channel 4 documentary, examining his 2% levy on assets above £10 million and challenging the claim that wealth inequality is spiralling out of control. They then turn to the Government’s plan to extend customs duties to packages under £135 from 2028, dubbed the “Teemu tax,” and explain why the cost usually lands on the consumer rather than the foreign seller. The conversation closes with the land value tax, drawing on Dan Neidle’s recent report, weighing its efficiency case against the practical difficulty of transitioning from the current system without creating regional winners and losers.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, IEA Director General Lord Hannan interviews Matthew Elliott, Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell, president of the Jobs Foundation and former chief executive of Vote Leave. The conversation covers the ten-year anniversary of Vote Leave, marked by Elliott’s new book, and traces his path from Taxpayers Alliance founder to running the successful campaign against the alternative vote system, which he treated as a trial run for the EU referendum.

Elliott discusses the internal tensions of the Leave campaign, including his account of clashes with Arron Banks and Leave.EU, the case for designation as the official Leave campaign, and the financial disadvantage Vote Leave faced against Remain. He shares his views on campaign strategy, including distilling messages down to their essence and hiring for enthusiasm over experience. The discussion also covers the aftermath of the referendum, including his frustration with Theresa May’s handling of Brexit negotiations and his assessment of what a Boris Johnson, Michael Gove or other leadership might have achieved differently.

The interview concludes with a look at what has and has not been delivered since Brexit, including missed opportunities on deregulation and the habitats directive, and Elliott’s argument that the UK still lacks a Government able to make the case for growth. The conversation ends with reflections on the individuals who shaped the Leave campaign and Elliott’s final policy pick if he were in charge for a day.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, IEA Director General Lord Hannan interviews Michael Simmons, economics editor of The Spectator, about whether Britain has really been a neoliberal economy for the past forty years, or whether that claim gets the diagnosis badly wrong. The conversation covers the rise of regulation and price controls since the financial crisis, the perception gap between how wealthy people think Britain is and the fiscal reality, and why voters consistently overestimate profit margins at supermarkets and the NHS.

Michael argues that living standards stalled not because of neoliberalism but because Britain stopped being a free market economy, drifting into a more heavily controlled and interventionist system well before the pandemic accelerated the trend. The pair discuss what a serious fiscal crisis might look like for the UK, comparing the sharp but effective austerity in Ireland with the drawn out and less successful approach in Greece, and consider whether Britain would follow the Irish or the Greek path if the bond markets turned. They also examine the political incentives that make honest arguments for smaller government difficult to sustain in office.

The discussion closes with a wider look at the “socialism has never been tried” argument, comparing outcomes in North and South Korea and in East and West Germany, and asking why economic evidence so rarely changes public opinion.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Director of Communications Callum Price is joined by IEA Director General Lord Hannan and Editorial Director Dr Kristian Niemietz. The panel discusses the Clacton by-election and the rise of joke candidates, the very different ways the populist left and right use the word “establishment,” the debate sparked by J.D. Vance over whether GDP is the right measure of a country’s success, and the Government’s proposals to make platforms promote public service broadcasters online.

Callum, Lord Hannan and Kristian Niemietz begin with Nigel Farage’s resignation as an MP to force a by-election in Clacton, and what the contest reveals about how “anti-establishment” politics means very different things depending on which side is using it. They move on to a defence of economic growth, arguing that GDP scepticism usually rests on a strawman version of economics that no real economist holds, and that growth is what has given people leisure time, labour-saving technology and rising living standards. The conversation ends on the Government’s new Green Paper, which would require social media platforms to prioritise BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 content, and what that means for free expression, drawing on John Stuart Mill’s case for free speech and examples of “high status misinformation,” including claims about NHS privatisation and wealth inequality.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.