We all know that Britain is not building the number of houses or the amount of infrastructure needed to support growth. We all live with the effects of that failure, putting up with an economy that doesn’t generate enough wealth and opportunities for its people.

This is all the more frustrating because there are billions of pounds of capital that British investors would love to put to work, building the economy and infrastructure we all need. All too often we encounter delays and obstacles that stand in the way of the housing, roads and reservoirs that the country requires.

This is because planning rules and overlapping regulations make it too hard to build vital infrastructure — and too easy to block that building. The planning system is already tilted in favour of Nimbyism and there are signs that artificial intelligence could make it even easier for activist campaign groups.

We need change, before things get even worse. That means altering planning rules to impose a financial charge on people who object to developments far from where they live, or who submit an excessive number of objections. That is one of 28 proposals being made today by Pension Insurance Corporation (Pic) in a report that shows how to get Britain building again.

At Pic we are in the midst of these issues every day. We are a £50 billion pension-risk transfer insurer, seeking the long-term, stable UK investments that allow us to pay the pensions of more than 400,000 British policyholders.

So far we have invested more than £14 billion in UK housing and infrastructure and we’ll do a lot more in the years ahead as more defined-benefit pension members see their schemes transferred by their trustees to insurers. This transfer, known as “buy out”, means their pensions are secured by highly regulated insurance firms and supported by long-term investments in Britain.

Our industry should invest hundreds of billions of pounds in UK housing and infrastructure over the next decade. This is an opportunity to address decades of under-investment and start to turn things around this year and for decades to come.

But standing in the way of those investments is a planning system that makes it too easy for people and campaign groups to block developments, even when those objectors have no real connection to the places concerned.

That is not just unfair on the wider economy, it is unfair on the communities concerned. Pic, like many major investors, is dedicated to delivering the greatest possible social value from our investments. We know that good developments, in partnership with local communities and institutions, support stronger communities, health and education.

Too often, though, the objections that can lead to the collapse of huge and vital projects come from only a handful of people, some of them living far away.

Our paper today shows how:
• in 2023, 85 per cent of noise complaints about Heathrow were made by only ten people;
• one campaign group opposing what it terms “damaging roads” is reported to have cost the UK taxpayer £200 to £300 million by objecting to new projects, and
• most troublingly, a new service called Objector offers to provide “policy-backed objections in minutes”, suggesting that AI could turbocharge Nimby objections.

Part of the answer is to require a fee for objections from people who live more than a set distance — perhaps ten miles — from the site of a proposed development.

The benefits of development to local communities should be made even greater too. Our report shows how the best way to achieve this is by giving developers the ability to offer financial and other incentives to win community consent, using local ballots to ensure full transparency.

• Martin Clunes fails to block traveller site near his home

To break down the bureaucratic barriers that set back investment we also recommend that a fast-track regulatory process be established that uses the judgment of the best regulators from around the world to guide UK counterparts, enabling faster approvals of goods and services.

We know from our work with the Treasury and policymakers across the political spectrum that there is strong support for such change. What is needed are practical solutions to a national problem.

There is no shortage of capital ready to invest in Britain’s future. We are ready to invest billions more in the UK to secure the pensions of our policyholders. What is needed is decisive action to free up a system that makes it too easy to object and too hard to build. The detailed recommendations in our report today show the way.

Rob Groves is chief investment officer of Pension Insurance Corporation