Chancellor George Osborne announced that “the Department for Transport’s operational budget will fall by 37%”, during his Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 speech today (November 25).
He continued: “But transport capital spending will increase by 50% to a total of £61 billion - the biggest increase in a generation. That funds the largest road investment programme since the 1970s. For we are the builders.
“It means the construction of HS2 to link the Northern Powerhouse to the South can begin. The electrification of lines like the trans-Pennine, Midland Main Line and Great Western can go ahead.
“We’ll fund our new Transport for the North to get it up and running. London will get an £11 billion investment in its transport infrastructure.
“And having met with my Honourable Friend for Folkestone and other Kent MPs, I will relieve the pressure on roads in Kent from Operation Stack with a new quarter of a billion pound investment in facilities there.
“We’re making the £300 million commitment to cycling we promised.
“And we will be spending over £5 billion on roads maintenance this Parliament. And thanks to the incessant lobbying of my Honourable Friend for Northampton North, Britain now has a permanent pothole fund.
“We’re investing in the transport we need; and in the flood defences.”
- For more on the Spending Review, read RAIL 789, on sale December 9.
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