Britain must overhaul the way it approves infrastructure

“SAY NO!” Blare orange placards along the road out of Marks Tey, a village in Essex. Rosie Pearson, a consultant-turned-campaigner, points to where a planned chain of pylons will cut through a field next to the house she grew up in. Pulling out maps and annotated documents, she recounts skirmishes with National Grid, which wants to build the line to carry wind and nuclear power from East Anglia to London. The real battle will not come until 2025, when a final decision beckons.Building infrastructure in Britain has become painfully slow. Since the planning system was last reformed in 2012, the time it takes to secure consent for national infrastructure projects has risen by two-thirds, to over four years. That is on top of a “pre-consent” stage that averages two. Power lines should be relatively easy things to put up, but they still take around 13 years from start to finish.