DANNY Alexander will today set out details of more than £100 billion of capital projects stretching up to 2020 and beyond as the Lib-Con Coalition seeks to signal a significant shift towards spending on the nation's infrastructure.
Ahead of the Commons statement by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, George Osborne yesterday told MPs the Coalition was determined to "raise our national game" and said £50bn of capital investment would be spent in 2015 alone.
"This will mean that Britain will spend on average more as a percentage of its national income on capital investment in this decade – despite the fact money is tight – than in the previous decade when government spending was being wasted in industrial quantities," insisted the Chancellor. He explained that, of the £300bn capital spending guaranteed to the end of this decade, Mr Alexander would set out the next stage of the Coalition's economic infrastructure plan of more than £100bn of specific projects.
A senior Treasury source highlighted a trebling of major road schemes, which will come in addition to the largest investment in Britain's railways since the Victorian age, including High Speed Rail 2, new commuter links, South Wales electrification and London's Crossrail.
"A lot of the building will start this side of the election," he declared.
He added: "At the moment we are building every single road scheme for which there is planning permission."
Energy will also be another key area for infrastructure projects, with public sector investment expected to "leverage in tens of millions of private sector investment".
In the spending review, Mr Osborne said the UK Government would "make the tax and planning changes which will put Britain at the forefront of exploiting shale gas".
He also promised to provide the certainty investors needed to pour £100bn of investment into the UK's energy infrastructure, in the wake of concerns that the Coalition was sending mixed signals over future energy policy.
The Chancellor explained that in 2015/16 up to £5.3bn, raised though a levy on people's bills, would go to support low-carbon energy projects.
It has already been announced that by 2020, up to £7.6bn a year will be spent on such clean energy schemes.
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