Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce several infrastructure projects are to be axed to fill a recently discovered £20bn shortfall in the country’s finances
Infrastructure projects to face the axe in the announcement later today are expected to include the Stonehenge tunnel, the previous Government’s scheme to deliver 40 new hospitals and the A27 Arundel bypass.
Labour did not mince their words in attributing the £20bn hole in public services as a “shocking inheritance” from the Conservatives.
Infrastructure projects potentially facing the axe or postponement include:
- HS2 tunnel extension to the Euston Terminus from Old Oak Common
- the £500m Restoring Your Railway Fund, which aimed to restore 45 local railways
- the £1.7bn A303 dual carriageway Stonehenge bypass
- the A27 Arundel bypass in West Sussex
- the already delayed New Hospitals programme, which promised 40 new hospitals across the UK
Further savings will be identified by a “office of value for money”
This new office will use civil service resources to find and recommend savings for the ongoing financial year. Surplus publically owned property will be sold and “non-essential” spending on consultants will be rolled back.
Speaking to the Guardian, a Treasury source said the announcement was not “a return to austerity” but about answering “14 years of unfunded promises”.