The Prime Minister also said the Government will work with the devolved administrations to carry out a ‘connectivity review’, looking at how best to improve road, rail, air and sea links between the four home nations.

Announcing a £5Bn ‘New Deal’ based on the principle of ‘build, build, build’ to stimulate the UK’s economic recovery from Coronavirus, he spoke of an infrastructure revolution and said: “I don’t think that this crisis has ended the desire or the need to move around swiftly and efficiently.”

Boris Johnson added: “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.”

He confirmed that over £100M will be spent on 29 road schemes across the country, including fixing deteriorating roads and repairing bridges on key local highway routes.
Projects set to receive a share of the investment include the repair of two bridges in Sandwell in the West Midlands as well as maintenance work on Liverpool’s key route network, the Swanswell Viaduct in Coventry and on Tadcaster Road in York. Improvement to the A15 through the Humber region is also promised.

CIHT’s chief executive Sue Percy said: “We welcome the announcements of planned investment in the highway network, which CIHT called for in the Improving Local Highways review.

“This announcement acknowledges the contribution that the highways and transportation sector can give the post Covid-19 recovery to restart the economy but needs to be in line with the Government’s own decarbonisation targets.”

Trade group the Asphalt Industry Alliance said additional investment in local roads would contribute towards the Government’s levelling up strategy and complement ambitions for more active travel.

“Properly funding local authorities to carry out cost effective, planned, preventative maintenance programmes would reduce future costs of more extensive repairs or replacement as well as encouraging cycling, cutting congestion and improving air quality,” said the group’s chair Rick Green.

The Prime Minister also pledged £10M for development work on plans to unblock a rail bottleneck in Manchester, and said a further £900M will be spent on a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the next two years.

In addition, he said £96M will be allocated through the previously announced Towns Fund this year, which will see 101 towns receive between £500,000 and £1M to spend on projects such as improvements to transport, high streets and parks.

However some have criticised Boris Johnson for repeating existing announcements and failing to adequately address regional inequalities.

“In the face of the biggest challenge ever to face these islands,” said think tank IPPR North’s director Sarah Longlands, the Prime Minister’s announcement “merely reheats existing announcements and does little to ‘level up’ power and resources across the UK”.
“The north deserves better,” she added, calling for greater devolution.

Association for Project Management chief executive Debbie Dore said that, while the Prime Minister’s proposals for infrastructure spending are welcome, “this needs to be more than a one off big spend”.

“This should be both a sustainable and sustained approach, and have a strong focus on the requirements of successful project delivery, both in capacity and capability.”

Transport consultant Aecom’s chief executive for the UK and Ireland, David Barwell welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to ‘build, build, build’ but added “what we now need to see is ‘action, action, action’.”

With much talk of an infrastructure revolution and ‘levelling up’, David added he hopes yesterday’s announcement marks the start of a process to turn these slogans into reality.
But he added a note of caution. “It’s vital for the future prosperity of the UK that levelling up isn’t seen as trade off between north and south. It should be viewed as the act of balancing investment across our towns and cities throughout the country. Levelling up cannot mean levelling down our capital.”

This autumn, the Government is due to publish the delayed National Infrastructure Strategy, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer will also provide a more detailed update on plans for shorter term economic recovery next week.

Government also announced yesterday that new regulations allowing trials of rental electric scooters will come into force on Saturday, with the first trials set to begin on roads and cycle lanes from next week.

(Photograph: 10 Downing Street)