Holiday time is here again. Our team is taking a break from our news commentating. We shall be back in the middle of August. In the meantime, there is a mass of material to look at - especially in our FAQ and Downloads sections.

The government is proposing to levy a tax of £6 a year on all telephone lines, to pay for the expansion of high-speed broadband services to give nation-wide coverage. This is an excellent example of the government’s lack of understanding of economic principles.

High speed broadband is a good thing, but not everyone wants it, needs it, or is even capable of using it. If people want it they will pay for it. There are many alternative methods of delivering the service, through wireless, copper cable or fibre optic systems, or combinations of all three. There are many national providers of utility networks who could achieve this in various ways, although it has to be said that they have failed to take the opportunity to do so as part of the general renewal of infrastructure that has turned so many of Britain’s city streets into building sites in recent years.

Henry Law's scathing personal comments on the proposed phone tax can be read on the LVTC blog.

The Communities and Local Government's website has this piece of news on changes to the planning system.

"Developers will be given more time to start building and further flexibility to adapt plans, under a package of new measures announced by Housing Minister John Healey yesterday to support the industry during these tough economic times. Mr Healey also announced changes for developers to build to greener standards, making homes cheaper to heat and run.

"There has been a sharp drop-off in the number of permissions which are being taken up, so for a temporary period, a simpler and cheaper way of extending the life of planning consent is being introduced. Currently, permissions that are not used expire automatically - usually after three years. If developments can't be built because of economic conditions it could delay economic recovery, as those schemes would have to be reapplied for when conditions pick up."

Read the official announcement on the government’s website here

This gives the lie to the old argument that development is constrained by planning restrictions. The site above, for instance, in the centre of Brighton, has been vacant, with planning consent, for nearly 25 years. What is really going on?

Both in the US and Europe, there is much talk of bank regulation to stop another boom and bust. It will not work. The time will come, perhaps fifteen years from now, when economies will seem to be on a path of steady growth. People will say, yet again, that this time the growth is sustainable. There will be pressure to remove the regulations, which will be seen as unduly restrictive. Politicians will concede. In any case, regulations can always be worked-around, through the invention of ingenious schemes not envisaged when the regulations were devised. Like all its predecessors, growth will turn insidiously to boom followed by bust.