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Rishi Sunak will present the government’s national infrastructure strategy next week, including long-term investments in the climate and transportation sectors and plans to bridge the north-south gap.
The strategy, which the chancellor was due to publish in March, provides £ 100bn to improve connectivity in transport systems and work towards the government’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050. It includes a down payment on flagship programs including broadband fiber. flood defenses and transportation systems, according to the Treasury.
Sunak will announce the plans on Wednesday along with its spending review, which will provide tens of billions of pounds for infrastructure investments, including 1.6 billion pounds to tackle potholes.
The strategy is also designed to reject allegations of a funding discrepancy for the north and south of England. The Treasury confirmed that Sunak would change the department’s green book, a set of regulations that determines the value of government schemes and is said to favor London and the south-east of England.
Sunak will also introduce a new national infrastructure bank, which will be based somewhere in the north of England. The bank will launch next year to replace the work of the European Investment Bank after the UK leaves the EU.
The Treasury also said it would announce the location of its new headquarters in the north in the coming weeks, as part of a broader campaign to get more officials to work outside of London.
“We are absolutely committed to leveling the opportunities for those who live in all corners of the UK to get their fair share of our future prosperity,” said Sunak.
“Every nation and region in the UK has benefited from our unprecedented £ 200bn Covid assistance package. And after a difficult year for this country, this spending review will help us rebuild better by investing over £ 600 billion across the UK over the next five years. “
Jake Berry, who leads a group of Conservative MPs representing the north of England, welcomed the chancellor’s announcement. He said it showed that Sunak had “‘leveling’ at the center of this government’s agenda.”
Unions and the Labor Party have criticized the chancellor for reports that he would announce a salary cap as part of the spending review, although NHS doctors and nurses are expected to be exempt.
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds described the measures as “more empty rhetoric.”
“The Conservatives have been in power for 10 long years, but their record is a litany of failures and broken promises,” he said.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell suggested that the Treasury had had the ideas for policy, including the national investment bank, the Treasury green paper revision, and the move north of the 2019 Labor manifesto.
“We will see if it is on the scale necessary to tackle the decade of conservative underinvestment, match the catastrophic climate crisis we are facing and if it will address the grotesque levels of inequality they have created or line the pockets of its friends in big business,” he tweeted.
