They're not, but they're not 'expensive renovations at every single ground' rich. Lord's are adding 2500 seats at the cost of £50m; it isn't the FIFA World Cup, this tournament simply doesn't make enough cash to carry out building work at stadiums which are often in built up areas. And even if it did it's questionable whether the money is better spent building extensions to grounds that might struggle to sell out rather than spending money on the grassroots. The ECB do lots of things wrong, but building white elephants isn't something you can realistically demand of them.
They did want to play India v Pakistan and England v Australia at West Ham's Stadium, but they couldn't work out how to position the strip to stop the sun blinding the batsman.
Oh, and the counties that actually own the grounds have absolutely feck all money.