If Philip Hammond is on the hunt for some last-minute inspiration before his make-or-break budget next week, he might consider looking to Egypt, via Washington. In the Western Desert by the River Nile, a 37 sq km construction project is under way. It’s infrastructure investment, as every British politician of every stripe says the UK needs, but on a different scale. Where Britain faces “an unprecedented housing crisis”, as Sajid Javid, the local government secretary, said this week, Egypt is on the brink of an energy crisis. There’s no shortage of private developers offering to build power plants in Egypt, but, as ever, the problem has been…

Source: The Times November 18, 2017 00:02 UTC