The Resolution Foundation says that:

In a report highlighting the continued weakness of private and public sector investment, the Resolution Foundation said radical solutions were needed to improve the UK’s performance, including giving parliament and local governments more power over spending that could boost growth.

The first stage of their argument is that there simply should be more public investment. We disagree - we have before us the example of HS2. This is a gargantuan waste of money that will make the country poorer as even the government’s own cost benefit analysis states - when read properly that is. More public sector investment, given the incompetence of public sector investment, is therefore contraindicated.

The second stage is that because the Treasury acts as a firewall against at least some of the money wasting excesses therefore the Treasury should be removed from the process of wasting money. Our problem with this is that it’s an idea which has been tested in recent years. Local councils have been able to borrow at concessionary rates to invest. Those that did so are all largely going bust as a result - vide Croydon and such places.

That is, politics is bad at investing money, local politics is worse, therefore we shouldn't be using politics to decide investment and most certainly not local politics. After all, the aim of investment is to get richer not, as recent experience tells us about political investing, to become poorer.