‘New Deal’ for post-covid UK

BORIS JOHNSON will today promise a “New Deal” for the British people to rebuild the post-covid economy with a plan borrowed from Depression-era America.

The Prime Minister will detail his unapologetically “Rooseveltian” focus on jobs, skills and infrastructure in a major speech intended to move the national debate away from lockdown and on to the future of the UK.

Mr Johnson will promise that: “We will not just bounce back, we will bounce forward – stronger and better and more united than ever before.”

He will pledge billions of pounds for roads, hospitals, schools, houses, railways, prisons and broadband to “build our way back to health” by fostering economic growth.

In a speech delivered in Dudley, West Midlands, in a former “red wall” constituency won from Labour at the last election, the Prime Minister will make it clear that it and other deprived parts of the country will be first in line for money to rebuild.

Ministers have compared the economic crisis caused by coronavirus to the Great Depression of the Thirties, and Mr Johnson will make no bones about taking inspiration from Franklin D Roosevelt, the US president at the time, in his response.

He will say: “It sounds positively Rooseveltian. It sounds like a New

Deal. All I can say is that if so, then that is how it is meant to sound and to be, because that is what the times demand. A Government that is powerful and determined and that puts its arms around people at a time of crisis.

“This is a Government that is wholly committed not just to defeating coronavirus but to using this crisis finally to tackle this country’s great unresolved challenges of the last three decades.

“To build the homes, to fix the NHS, to tackle the skills crisis, to mend the indefensible gap in opportunity and productivity and connectivity between the regions of the UK. To unite and level up.

“To that end we will build, build, build. Build back better, build back greener, build back faster and to do that at the pace that this moment requires.”

Roosevelt rebuilt the US economy in the Thirties by investing heavily in public works to create jobs and stimulate growth, as well as providing direct support to the unemployed and reforming government.

Downing Street sources said details of the infrastructure projects would be announced over the next two weeks, with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, setting out the cost of them and how they will be funded in a statement on the economy next week.

Mr Johnson has already announced £1billion for the first 50 projects in a 10-year schools rebuilding programme, with another £560million for urgent repairs this year, and will also bring forward £1.5 billion of spending on hospital maintenance; almost £1billion for “shovel ready” local growth projects including improvements to high streets and parks; £100million for 29 road projects and £142million for digital upgrades to prisons.

The eventual investment in infrastructure is expected to run into tens of billions, not including the £100billion already committed to the HS2 rail line and £40 billion for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Promising to make good on his manifesto commitment to “level up” the country, he will say: “Too many parts of this country have felt left behind, neglected, unloved, as though someone had taken a strategic decision that their fate did not matter as much as the metropolis. And so I want you to know that this Government not only has a vision to change this country for the better, we have a mission to unite and level up – the mission on which we were elected last year.

“If we deliver this plan together, then we will together build our way back to health.”

The Prime Minister will acknowledge that “in the long-term” the Government must find a way to balance the books, but he will not do so at the expense of investing now in the economy.

In the autumn, the Government will publish a National Infrastructure Strategy to set out its policy on core economic infrastructure, including energy networks, road and rail, flood defences and waste.

Among the first of the new jobs that will be created are 3,000 in local conservation projects, including Conservation Rangers who will protect wildlife habitats such as meadows and rivers.

‘We will build, build, build. Build back better, build back greener, build back faster’

‘We have a mission to unite and level up – the mission on which we were elected last year’