Borrowing for these IS mad: ✅PIP payments for anxious teens ✅a 3-lock for several million property millionaires ✅placating NIMBY opponents of essential national infrastructure with bat tunnels ✅HMG contracts for PWC, Deloitte & G4S, Serco etc. Borrowing for these is NOT mad: ❌expedited regional infrastructure projects exempt from JRs/Natural England blockages – roads, tramlines, high speed rail that produce growth & productivity multipliers/agglomeration effects for the next century ❌nuclear/renewable energy generation & grid, creating reliable revenue streams & cheap, abundant energy for decades ❌mass municipal housebuilding – giving councils decades of rental income, alleviating price pressures in the PRS & disincentivising mass middle-class saver-driven rentierism in favour of investment in the productive economy The point is to get a long-term ROI higher than the rate of interest, at which point borrowing-to-invest becomes not only sustainable but beneficial. The fiscal rule that says we basically shouldn't borrow for current spending outside of a recession is correct (tax rises, departmental savings on cash transfers etc., & supply-side reforms, should be employed to try and deliver balanced current budgets). BUT growth/revenue-generating capital projects are very different. BoE should facilitate the latter if necessary, supporting new infrastructure renewal bonds etc. I'm personally sick of living in a country with a 3rd-rate public capital stock. And having such a 3rd tier public realm (esp. outside of London!) has seriously negative growth implications!