Infrastructure programme: Beware - major roadworks ahead

 

Britain's road and rail networks are to get a multibillion pound upgrade as George Osborne attempts to build his way to economic recovery.

 

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The Chancellor set out details yesterday of a major
infrastructure programme to generate work for struggling small
business and create thousands of jobs. Some 35 new transport
schemes got the go-ahead, including a new train route between
Oxford and Bedford and the electrification of the TransPennine link
between Manchester and Leeds in a move to cut journey times.

He also confirmed plans to build new free and primary schools,
as well as pressing ahead with the roll-out of broadband coverage
across the country.

Airports will be expanded, while power stations and waste
facilities built as part of the £30bn infrastructure programme, of
which £5bn would be found from cuts elsewhere in government
spending.

Mr Osborne said the moves were necessary because Britain risked
"falling behind the rest of the world" without significant
investment in its key transport links. But critics yesterday warned
that the programme was a drop in the ocean of overall spending and
might not be enough to kick-start recovery.

Roadworks loom for much of the country as a series of motorways
and A-roads are improved. They include the construction of the
Manchester Airport and Crewe link roads as well as the widening of
the A14 which links the port of Felixstowe to the Midlands.

New rail stations will be built in Yorkshire and more trams
provided, and tolls on the Humber Bridge will be halved. The
Chancellor also pledged to bring forward investment on the Tyne and
Wear Metro and allocated £50m to help to safeguard the overnight
sleeper train link between London and Scotland.

He backed work on a new bridge over the Thames between Kent and
Essex and said other sites for crossings of the river. He also
signalled his support the extension of London Underground's
Northern Line to Battersea, south London. Mr Osborne ruled out a
third runway at Heathrow airport but said that all other options
would be explored "for maintaining the UK's aviation hub status" –
a hint that Boris Johnson's plans to build a new airport off the
Kent coast would be scrutinised.

The programme included an extra £1.2bn for schools, about half
of it to fund the creation of 100 new free schools and the rest to
build extra primary school places in inner-city areas in places
such as London and Birmingham.Mr Osborne pledged to overhaul the
country's digital links, saying that the Government was funding
plans to bring superfast broadband to 90 per cent of homes and
businesses across the country. "World-leading, superfast broadband
and Wi-Fi connections" would be brought to the nation's four
capitals – London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – as well as six
major cities to be chosen in a competition, he said.