Potholes, Roads, and Railways: ‘Record’ Infrastructure Spend Projected for 2020 Budget

‘Historic amounts’ of infrastructure investment is expected within this year’s budget; with estimates in the hundreds of billions of pounds.

• £5bn will be invested towards faster broadband across the country within the next five years and a £1bn deal to boost 4G coverage.
• £5bn is expected in the form of loans as a means of boosting post-Brexit exports.
• £2.5bn is also expected to go towards fixing 50 million potholes nationwide over the next five years.
• It is possible that flood defence funding will double to £5.3bn after cross-country storm damage seen over the past few months.

The Budget, which is due to be delivered today, will allow more money for transport such as roads and railways, as well as affordable housing and research.

Rishi Sunak, who isn’t even a month into his job as Chancellor, is also said to triple the average net investment seen over the past 40 years as part of the government’s so called “levelling up” plans.

Sunak said, “This is a Budget for people right across the country – no region will be left behind.

“We can’t level up Britain and spread opportunity if we are spending our journey’s dodging potholes and forking out damage they cause. That’s why we are going to eradicate the scourge of potholes in every part of the country.”

He is also expected to ease any spending constraints that has been set due to the coronavirus, promising to give the NHS “whatever it needs” to cope with the outbreak.  

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell called today’s announcement “the most important budget since the second world war”.

The Labour MP warned that the amount of spending that was likely to be made was “nowhere near the scale we need” to help health and public services, who he believes are in a vulnerable position in dealing with the current infection outbreak.However, Sunak affirmed on The Andrew Marr Show that the NHS would receive “whatever resources they need”.