The Chancellor Phillip Hammond is set to announce plans to set aside £1.3 billion to improve the UK’s roads, in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.
The move is prioritized as a way to tackle congestion on the UK’s roads, with investments of around £27 million for the development of an expressway connecting Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. This was given the go-ahead after recommendations from the National Infrastructure Commission.
In addition, the transport investments will include £220 million of funds targeted to alleviate strain upon noted “pinch-points” on Highways England roads.
In a piece for the Telegraph, Mr Hammond gave some insight into what his first budget statement would encompass:
“My first Autumn Statement will set out a plan for guiding our economy through this period, and preparing it for the future after we leave the EU… We need to step up a gear.
“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.”
The Cameron government similarly had attempted to prioritize improvements to transport links and infrastructure, with the HS2 railway linking London and the North still in progress. A deviation from the austerity approach advocated by George Obsorne is nonetheless expected, with anticipations that Mr Hammond’s statement will focus upon the importance of infrastructure investments for the post-Brexit economy, as emphasised in his piece in the Telegraph.
A spokesperson for the Treasury 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,”.
Theresa May government economic priorities have already come under fire, with the announcement of costly £369m renovations of Buckingham Palace prompting widespread outrage, as the country continues to grapple an ongoing house shortage crisis.
Mr Hammond is set to deliver his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.