We know that colonial wealth allowed the Victorians the ability to fund huge infrastructure projects. However, they always encouraged good, sound and technologically inventive ideas. This provided the setting and environment for their great engineers and architects, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, to flourish.
Of course, large ambitious projects are difficult but we have to take a longer view of where we can go. Investment in infrastructure is the key to creating wealth and optimism.
Anne Power, professor of social policy, argues that the bigger the investment project, the larger the delays and thus the more problems that can be created. As a result, she thinks that investment in smaller scale projects can in fact bring more benefits."Programmes such as Labour's Decent Homes investment, or investment in energy saving for existing housing stock, would be much more managed and dispersed," she argues.
