Budget 2020: £600 billion boost to Britain’s infrastructure

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a raft of measures to invest in Britain’s roads, railways, housing and broadband over the next five years. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a raft of measures to invest in Britain’s roads, railways, housing and broadband over the next five years. 

Mr Sunak announced an investment of £27 billion in Britain’s roads, which includes the second round of Major Road Network and Large Local Major schemes proceeding to the next stage of development, plus a £2.5 billion fund to repair Britain’s potholes, aiming to fill 50 million potholes and resurfacing roads over the next five years.

The government is investing £4.2 billion in the transport networks of eight city regions across England from 2022-23. Funding will be delivered through five-year, consolidated transport settlements.

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, he has included a £1 billion safety fund to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings as part of the Government's Building Safety Fund.

He has also pledged £5 billion for state-of-the-art broadband in the most remote areas.

Other measures include £12 billion for building affordable housing. Its Affordable Housing Programme will have £9.5 billion more to spend on affordable homes in England.

Mr Sunak says that there will be almost £1.1 billion allocated from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to build nearly 70,000 new homes in high demand areas across the UK.

A new £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund aims to create more homes on brownfield land in areas such as the West Midlands.

Some £650 million has been put aside to help Britain’s rough sleepers back into accommodation. There will be a stamp duty surcharge of 2% for non-UK residents from April 2021 to help pay for it. 

Following the winter floods, the Government will invest £5.2 billion in a six-year flood defence programme.

Hew Edgar, head of RICS UK Government Relations & City Strategy, comments: “There is lots in today’s budget to applaud and the Chancellor has clearly been listening to RICS - particularly with the long term review of business rates which needs to happen quickly for firms to plan ahead, and the £1billion cladding remediation fund which will give more leaseholders and homeowners certainty and ensure where they live is safe.  

“Levelling-up the country isn’t about what is said at the dispatch box, but the £600 billion to be spent on new infrastructure stands to transform all parts of this country – however we must learn the lessons of projects like Heathrow and Cross Rail to ensure this is delivered effectively for taxpayers. Our professionals can help ensure projects that make a real difference to peoples’ lives are delivered on time and on budget.

“Delivering green, new housing required an ambitious approach to VAT – not superficial tweaks to stamp duty –  so we’re disappointed the Chancellor didn’t support the property industry to retrofit thousands of buildings, turning them into places people would have loved to call home.”