From The Camden New Journal, article entitled ‘Send Johnson the bill for the Garden Bridge Fiasco’
With Halloween this week, I’ve decided to share some productivity horror stories. These are some of the UK’s most spectacular infrastructure money pits. Whatever time and money you waste in pointless meetings, it’s nothing next to these shockers (though we can still fix the meetings).
One reason why these happen is that leaders can get so invested in a vanity project that they forget why they started it, and keep pouring in money long after they should have walked away. (That’s the sunk-cost fallacy, and it’s the theme running through everything below.)
To be fair, I work with plenty of people bringing entrepreneurial energy to clear productivity blockers (what I call crazy busyness) and deliver outstanding service. But it’s Halloween, and I promised you horrors, so here’s my top five:
🌳 The Garden Bridge
A tree-lined footbridge over the Thames, in a spot that didn’t need one. Boris Johnson’s vanity project was cancelled before construction began, yet still burnt through £43 million of public money, including a £161,000 website and a £417,000 fundraising gala.
🪨 The Stonehenge Tunnel
Decades of planning and well over £100 million spent on a tunnel under Stonehenge to ease traffic on the A303. Scrapped last year without a spade in the ground.
🦇 HS2
Since it was proposed in 2009, costs have spiralled past £100 billion, making it the most expensive railway in the world. One highlight: a kilometre-long “bat shed” at Sheephouse Wood to protect rare Bechstein’s bats. Government costings puts the structure alone at around £95 million, and the stretch of line around it at £168 million. (I love bats. But still.)
From The Guardian
🐟 Hinkley Point C
The world’s most expensive nuclear power station, and it isn’t finished yet. Its environmental paperwork ran to tens of thousands of pages, and its fish protection measures are estimated at £700 million, including an underwater “fish disco” of speakers blasting noise to scare fish away from the intake pipes.
✈️ The Rwanda Scheme
£290 million of taxpayers’ money paid to Rwanda for a deportation scheme that sent precisely four people, all of whom went voluntarily.
There are plenty more examples of wasted time and resources swept under the carpet. What are your favourites? Let me know. 👻
The Chancellor has pledged to cut red tape to save businesses up to £800m. That’s progress. What can you do to make it easier to deliver great service?
Happy Halloween
Zena