Budget 2012: Broadband and rail head infrastructure list
Author: Mark Smulian, LGC |
Ultrafast broadband will come to 60 cities, chancellor George Osborne said in a series of Budget announcements on infrastructure investment.
Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle are to have this facility by 2015 as part of a 100m investment.
But the Budget implied that only parts of these cities would be connected, referring to 1.7m homes and 200,000 business ?in high growth areas? benefitting. There will be a further 50m for 50 smaller cities in a second wave of installations.
Mr Osborne said the final National Planning Policy Framework would be published on Tuesday, taking immediate effect.
It would, as expected, contain a presumption in favour of sustainable development, and scrap the national targets for the re-use of brownfield land set by the previous government. The government will consult on whether to make changes of use of buildings without planning permission easier.
A Major Infrastructure and Environment Unit will be set up ?to engage at an early stage with nationally significant infrastructure projects on potential Habitats Directive issues?.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine will lead a review for ministers of how spending departments and other public bodies interact with the private sector, and assess their capacity to deliver pro-growth policies and compare this to the situation in overseas economies.
The eight core cities in England will share up to 150m from 2013-14 to support a second round of projects through tax increment financing, with a competition for allocating this funding to be launched later this year.
Network Rail will get a further 130m to invest in the Northern Hub rail scheme, to improve links between Manchester and Sheffield, Rochdale, Halifax, Bradford, Bolton, Preston and Blackpool, including increased capacity on the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield.
This coincides with the franchise for Northern Trains being handed over to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority under the city deal announced yesterday for the conurbation.
In other announcements, planning could be speeded up for additional crossings of the Thames in east London, 56m has been allocated for the Bexhill to Hastings link road in East Sussex and the Growing Places fund will get an extra 270m, including 70m for the Greater London Authority.
Sir Merrick Cockell said the announced funding for TIF may only be enough to help just one project.
?Today’s announcement of 150m in TIF could help get a very small number of projects off the ground, but given the size of projects being looked at by some local authorities it could be limited to helping just one,? he said. ?We want to see much more ambition. The government has missed an important opportunity by not allowing all areas that can demonstrate a clear business case to get TIF schemes underway without unnecessary delay or bureaucracy.?