The knots of development Ethical economy: The knots of
development Why are so many poor countries stuck with huge
economic problems? Why, for example, are there so many
unemployed young people in Egypt – 41 percent of 19-24 year-
olds? The poor state of British housing can help answer these
questions. By developing world standards, the British housing
system works quite well. In Egypt, it takes 77 bureaucratic
procedures in 31 offices, and between six and 14 years, to get
legal approval for construction of a new house, according to the
2012 doctoral dissertation of Abdel Hamid El Kafrawy of the
University of Glasgow. The result: housing is in chronically
short supply and 65 percent of the population live in
unregistered and untaxed buildings. For a rich country, though,
the UK does remarkably badly. Construction has been inadequate,
at half the modest target rate set by the government in 2007.
The relatively few new houses and apartments which are built are
mostly relatively small – new American houses have al