Tackling traffic jams £1.3bn to fight congestion

Chancellor says Britain can boost its historically low levels of productivity by investing in infrastructure

British drivers are to be handed a significant boost next week as a billionpound package to clear congestion on roads across the country is announced.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, will use his Autumn Statement to promise £1.3 billion of infrastructure spending, most of which is targeted at reducing traffic.

Rural roads and “pinchpoints” will be among the priorities.

Mr Hammond said that for “too long” infrastructure spending was being targeted at projects that do not generate extra economic growth.

PHILIP HAMMOND will announce a billion-pound boost in infrastructure spending to get Britain moving again as he seeks to guide the economy through any post-Brexit turbulence.

In an announcement before Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, the Chancellor said that the country’s roads will benefit from a £1.3 billion spending package to tackle traffic congestion.

Mr Hammond has put investment in the country’s infrastructure – its roads, railway tracks, energy plants and building projects – at the heart of his early months in office.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he says: “By investing in our national infrastructure and skills we can do even better than before; we can improve our historically low levels of productivity and up our game even more. For too long, taxpayer-funded investment hasn’t been sufficiently targeted on generating economic returns for the country. On my watch, it will be.”

The message signals a clear break from the spending projects favoured by Gordon Brown that critics said made headlines but failed to deliver longterm economic benefits.

Instead, Mr Hammond is understood to favour investment that brings a “double economic benefit” – both from the initial spending and whatever is created from the cash.

Sources close to the Chancellor said spending on improving the skills of the workforce or creating business “hubs” that will accelerate growth will be favoured.

About £1.1 billion will be spent on reducing congestion and delivering vital upgrades on local roads and public transport networks”. A further £220 million will be spent tackling traffic “pinch-points”.

An “expressway” planned between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge will also receive an extra £27 million.

Ministers have grown concerned by the 100 million working days that are estimated to be lost between now and 2040 due to congestion, costing £13 billion every year.

Mr Hammond has indicated a departure from his predecessor George Osborne’s approach to Autumn Statements – the package of financial announcements delivered six months after the Budget.

The Chancellor is expected to focus on announcing “top level” spending decisions rather than “full details of individual projects”. A Government source said: “He believes the Treasury should be focused on its core job of economic policy, managing the public finances, and not doing spending departments’ jobs for them.”

Mr Hammond also believes changes need to be made to the economy to prepare it for Brexit despite being pleased with the “remarkable resilience” it has shown so far.

He writes: “We need to raise the overall productivity of the economy to the level of the best by investing in the infrastructure, the R&D, the skills and the innovation that will enable us not just to survive, but to prosper on the world stage.”