Road-building bonanza will ‘benefit North’

BRITAIN is due to reap the rewards of its biggest ever road building programme, Rishi Sunak said, as he set out £100 billion of infrastructure investment intended to deliver “once-in-ageneration returns”.

As part of a national infrastructure strategy, the Chancellor confirmed £27.5 billion of funding would be set aside to upgrade major motorways and A roads over the next five years. The

Treasury also confirmed it would invest £1.7 billion in improving local roads next year, including repairing potholes and relieving congestion.

With infrastructure forming a key pillar in Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda, £22.6 billion will be spent building HS2 over the next four years. The strategy also commits to £5 billion for faster broadband, as well as £5 billion for cycling and buses, including 800 zero-emission vehicles.

Meanwhile, a £7.1 billion “national home building fund” will help to deliver up to 860,000 homes. With “all but one of the major new capital projects” outside the South East, the strategy promises a redistribution of investment to left-behind regions. Mr Sunak also announced a new UK infrastructure bank, to be headquartered in the North.

The Chancellor said his “once-in-ageneration” plans “delivered the highest sustained level of public investment in more than 40 years”. Jake Berry, the leader of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPS, said that the plans would “directly benefit people in the North”.