Eh you said yourself earlier on in the 12:08 thread that if we wanted to reduce costs, the politicians would have to make tough and potentially unpalatable decisions.
It is simply unacceptable that timescale and costs are balloooning because of NIMBYS who don't want to give to others what they already have. Because of scumbags like that environmental protester Swampy who likely don't understand anything about what they are protesting against.
We have public planning inquiries and these should be enough in my opinion to adress most issues involvd with projects, especially if the manpower of the various planning bodies is strenghtened. Then it should be compulsory purchase time in by opinion using eminent domain, with any property owner being compensated at above market prices.
Certainly tough decisions are needed and vested interests need fighting, but planning isn't really the bottleneck or indeed a major problem. Sure it could be improved, a few less levels of appeal would be a start and certainly a bit more honesty about public 'consultations' would improve things. The answer has been decided long before any public consultation so stop pretending, it just annoys and alienates the public and tends to generate NIMBYs rather than head them off.
Far better to run the consultation far earlier, so don't consult over HS2 when you've already got a preferred route, instead consult over HS2 vs a new standard speed main line vs mass electrification. Get studies commissioned and published for general perusal by the press, experts and public BEFORE making a decision, give people a feeling that a submission to the inquiry and consultation actually does make a difference.
However even if we had a dictatorial planning system where the great leader could just say 'Do this!' the savings would be tiny. Getting the hybrid bill and planning permission for High Speed 2 will probably cost tens of millions, maybe £100 million tops, out of a total budget of £30 billion (and the rest). It's peanuts, a rounding error. As for timescales, that's being driven by finance and capacity. There's no money till Crossrail is finished and there are definitely not enough engineers, both general civil types and the far rarer tunnellers.
Britain has enough capacity for one major tunnel scheme (as in 'largest construction site in Europe' sized major) at a time. Broadly speaking that's Channel Tunnel, Jubilee Line, CTRL, Crossrail, HS2. Of course there are dozens of other smaller schemes happening at the same time, but those jobs are the truly huge ones that suck up resources. So as the government has delayed completion of Crossrail it is natural they have to delay the start of HS2, there's just not the resources.
What are the big unpopular changes? Environmental laws are one, everything from newts to the green belt to noise restrictions during construction (building works are noisy? Who knew?). Health and Safety laws, the HSE operate on a 'guilty till grudgingly acquitted' basis and so everyone feels the need to expensively cover their arse at the expense of the project budget. This ties in with employment law, make it easier to sack idiots. As the HSE things every accident is the fault of management, idiots are a massive liability and so an even bigger cost. For instance you can put someone on a course about wearing a hat, give them a hat that fits wonderfully, tell them every day to wear a hat and spot check to see if he is wearing a hat regularly, but if something goes wrong and he's not wearing a hat that is management's fault and not his.
Those need fixing and will not be easy to do, in comparison planning is just not an issue. And as for Swampy and so on, no new laws there just make sure the Police enforce the current laws and arrest the buggers!
