Without new infrastructure, the outlook for the coming decade is poor

Editorial: Countless schemes to improve roads, power lines, renewable energy and insulation – and even new school and hospital buildings – may be delayed as Jeremy Hunt goes hunting for savings

(Dave Brown)

Poor old Bradford. Poor old “Build Back Better”, Boris Johnson’s rallying call for a fair deal for the North. Poor old Britain.

The rumours and spin emanating from the Treasury sound increasingly grim. There is a threat to Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), which promised to revive the huge potential of great cities such as Bradford, Doncaster and Hull; to the northern/eastern extension of HS2; and to the planned nuclear power station in Suffolk, Sizewell C (though this is denied by No 10). And those are just the headline-grabbing mega-projects. Countless improvement schemes involving roads, power lines, renewable energy and insulation – and very possibly new school and hospital buildings – may well be delayed as Jeremy Hunt goes hunting for savings.

The whole budget of the levelling up department, already puny when set against the task of regenerating the UK north of Watford and west of the Cotswolds, is likely to be denuded still further, with passive minister Michael Gove putting a brave face on his department’s humiliating failure to deliver the promises of 2019.