Lessons from the Victorians for funding big projects: From housing to transport, infrastructure could be delivered faster using the finance models of earlier eras.
Elan Valley Aquaeduct in construction
In the summer of 1858, Britain’s parliamentarians soaked the curtains in the Palace of Westminster with lime chloride in an attempt to counter the “Great Stink” emanating from the river Thames. It failed. The prime minister demanded the Metropolitan Board of Works construct a sewerage system, legislating to allow the board to raise £3mn. This was to be repaid by a three-penny levy on all London households for 40 years. By 1900, the municipal bond market in England was about 50 per cent of the market for UK government debt. Today it is just 4.7 per cent…For example, the debt for the 1892 Elan Valley Aqueduct to pipe water into Birmingham was funded by an increase in water rates on businesses and households there Lessons from the Victorians for funding big projects