Prime minister Boris Johnson has announced a £5 billion ‘New Deal’ to ‘build build build’ putting the construction industry at the heart of the government’s plans to level-up Britain’s infrastructure and skills, fuel economic growth across the UK, and bring the UK out of the coronavirus economic downturn.
In the announcement Johnson said:
“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.”
Referencing the ambitious ‘New Deal’ series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939 in order to drive recovery from the Great Depression, the government will bring forward £5bn of capital investment projects, supporting jobs and the economic recovery, including:
- £1.5bn this year for hospital maintenance, eradicating mental health dormitories, enabling hospital building, and improving A&E capacity
- £100m this year for 29 projects in the road network to get Britain moving, from bridge repairs in Sandwell to boosting the quality of the A15 in the Humber region
- £10m this year for development work to unblock the Manchester rail bottleneck
- £560m and £200m respectively this year for repairs and upgrades to schools and FE colleges
- Over £1bn to fund the first 50 projects of a new, ten-year school rebuilding programme, starting from 2020-21
- £142m for digital upgrades and maintenance to around 100 courts this year, £83m for maintenance of prisons and youth offender facilities, and £60m for temporary prison places, creating thousands of new jobs
- £900m for a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the course of this year and next, as well as £96m to accelerate investment in town centres and high streets through the Towns Fund this year
Johnson highlighted that: “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.”
The industry has responded positively to the news, codenamed ‘Project Speed’, however many are disappointed the government will now wait until the Autumn to publish their National Infrastructure Strategy, which will set a clear direction on core economic infrastructure, including energy networks, road and rail, flood defences and waste, 12 months later than planned.
It has also been pointed out that many of the projects announced were plans brought forward rather than new investment and that further commitment to invest in the skillsets and training essential to underpin this ambitious plan is also needed urgently.
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said the Prime Minister’s commitment to invest in infrastructure comes at the right moment when builders’ workloads, enquiries and level of employment have all contracted to historically low levels, but that the need to repair is equally as important.
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: “The crushing impact of the coronavirus on builders’ workloads, enquiries and employment, as set out by the latest State of Trade data, sends a clear message to the Government that it is right to invest in construction. The repair, maintenance and improvement (RM&I) sector contributes 32% towards construction output so it’s important this isn’t overlooked in terms of investment.
“The pandemic has placed historic constraints on local builders’ ability to work, train, and earn a living. The RM&I market, the bread and butter for most small builders, has been the hardest hit. Almost half a million people left the sector as a result of the 2008-9 financial crash. The FMB is determined to avoid a repeat of this devastating blow to livelihoods and the building industry.”