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Ministers have pledged to spend £9bn a year on fixing crumbling schools, hospitals, courts and prisons over the next decade as part of the government’s infrastructure strategy.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, set out plans on Thursday to spend a minimum of £725bn over 10 years to boost UK-wide infrastructure and achieve a “national renewal”.
Jones announced that £6bn a year would go to repairing hospitals in England, £3bn to fixing and upgrading schools and colleges in England and £600m to courts and prisons in England and Wales.
The money will fund building improvements including removing crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in hospitals and strengthening safety and security in prisons.
Jones told MPs: “Done properly it will result in tangible improvements to the fabric of our country, our local roads and high streets renewed so communities are even better places to live.”
The strategy also includes £1bn to fix roads, bridges and flyovers across the UK and £590m to start work on the Lower Thames Crossing project. Some £16bn will go towards building 500,000 new homes through a new publicly owned National Housing Bank.
Richard Fuller, the Conservative shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, urged ministers to set out which major projects are being abandoned and explain why.
Business and industry groups, who have long argued the need for a long-term vision to provide certainty and encourage investment, broadly welcomed the strategy – although the government portal of actual projects will not now be launched online for another month. This project “pipeline” will be updated every six months.
Alex Vaughan, the CEO of construction and engineering firm Costain, said the launch was “a crucial step towards ending the short-termism that has held our sector back”.
The Railway Industry Association chief executive, Darren Caplan, said a 10-year strategy and the commitment to publish a pipeline in July was extremely welcome, adding: “We look forward to seeing the full details of the pipeline, which will need to give businesses sufficient clarity to plan ahead.”
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “A government operating within the spending rules it has set for itself demonstrates real commitment – one that can unlock private investment and finance, which will take confidence from this stability.”
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John Dickie, chief executive at BusinessLDN, said it showed welcome government recognition “that Britain needs a clear, committed, long-term pipeline of future public investment to give the private sector the confidence to invest”.
Sam Gould, director of policy at the Institution of Civil Engineer, said it was “a significant moment” with lots of positives, but added: “The sector will need more information on private finance models, and on how [it] will meet the demands of our changing climate.”
The strategy does not cover so-called megaprojects, which cost more than £10bn and take more than 10 years to deliver. These include the HS2 railway, Sizewell C nuclear plant and the Dreadnought submarine programme.
