1,500 SME Developers give up – and who can blame them?

I bought a plant earlier this year. I’m no expert, so I thought I’d start with something simple and easy to look after. I called him Keir.

Not being the green-fingered type, I read the instructions very carefully. Pretty simple really. Place Keir in a well-lit spot, free from drafts, water regularly and watch him grow.

So, having read the instructions, I did exactly the opposite. I placed him away from direct sunlight in a draughty spot and didn’t water him.

But – and this is what really matters – every time I was interviewed on TV, on the radio or in the press, I told everybody how well Keir was doing, insisting that I was planning to water him copiously and feed him the most expensive plant food money can buy, as a result of which he would grow at least 6 feet next year, and shortly afterwards he would flower and multiply.

I actually didn’t do any of this, but I was going to.

On a completely different subject, I see Bloomberg is reporting on data from Hamptons that the number of housebuilders in Britain is in decline for the first time in a decade and that we have lost 1,500 homebuilders in the past year alone.

The reasons given are numerous but include the end of the Help to Buy scheme, a dysfunctional planning system, delays caused by the introduction of new legislation following the Grenfell disaster, and increasingly complex environmental and safety rules.

How can this be when the government is going to build 1 million new homes, is going to light a bonfire of planning regulations, is going to spend gazillions to provide affordable housing, and is going to introduce a raft of policies to stimulate general economic growth? Everything is going to be fine.