Building society

One of the more surprising and controversial parts of the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s Autumn Statement last November was his announcement of a £30bn programme of infrastructure construction projects. Taking place from Devon to the Scottish border, the schemes would assist with the much talked about ’rebalancing of the economy’ away from the disastrous over-reliance on the financial sector, Osborne said.

The programme consists of 40 projects, including motorway and other road schemes and rail projects, such as the Metro system in Tyne and Wear and the Transpennine Express line between Leeds and Manchester. With £5bn of the money coming from public funds, the chancellor said that £20bn should be contributed from British pension funds, with the balance from insurance companies and from investors in China.

“Timing is a key factor in solving a problem that has been bedevilled the construction sector for decades: poor planning”

It’s an ambitious, long-term scheme. The programmes are set to begin between 2014 and 2018 and carry on through subsequent decades. ’We are finding the resources in difficult times to build the railways, to build the roads,’ Osborne told the House of Commons. ’We have got to weather the current economic storm and we have got to lay the foundations for a stronger economic future.’