Jamie Driscoll, a Green party councillor on Newcastle city council and former North of Tyne mayor, is proposing a 20-year investment plan for the UK, funded through off-market finance, as part of what he calls a 'wellbeing economy'.
In an article for the Guardian, Driscoll argues that capital markets are failing Britain's young people, pointing to examples such as a physics graduate making flat whites, a 30-year-old living in his childhood bedroom, and a lad in Blyth who turned down a job 15 miles away because there is no bus, with car insurance for young people costing almost £2,000 a year.
Hostage Nation plan
Driscoll's response to the mindset that 'we can't afford it' is Hostage Nation, a report that lays out how to source finance, shows what needs to be built, and tracks why it would make the country more prosperous and resilient. He joined the Green party to achieve this vision and hopes it will become official Green policy at the party conference.
He criticises fiscal rules, noting that nine sets have been broken and abandoned since the financial crash. Andy Haldane, a former chief economist of the Bank of England, called the current rules 'far from optimal; in fact I'd go as far as to say silly'. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said in 2024 that changing policy based on fiscal headroom projections was 'almost literally mad'.
Funding infrastructure
Driscoll argues that bond markets are 'just complex betting shops' and that the only organisation that can guarantee orders for infrastructure 20 years from now is the state. He cites the need for 100,000 council homes a year, fully renewable energy with a storage grid, clean transport, insulating every home, and buses and trains that run as one network.
He proposes funding this with off-market finance, including national infrastructure Isas through National Savings and Investments, which has been going for more than 160 years and is used by 24 million people. He notes that £70bn a year is invested in cash Isas and pension pools hold more than £2tn, yet less than 5% is invested in British firms.
Wellbeing economy in practice
Driscoll cites a 2014 pilot in Sunderland showing that a £5,000 investment in insulation and energy-efficient boilers for people with COPD lowered bills and reduced hospital admissions by 25% and GP appointments by 60%. He claims that combining retrofit and clean energy at cost could reduce energy bills by 67%.
He points to his experience as mayor of the North of Tyne combined authority, where moving adult training providers to rolling three-year contracts raised employment training places from 22,000 to 35,000 a year on the same real-terms budget. He concludes that the UK has the powers and machinery to start the plan tomorrow, saying 'Values win sympathy, but answers win seats.'
