Boris Johnson promises £5bn 'new deal' on hospitals, schools and roads

In a major speech in the West Midlands designed to reset the Government’s domestic agenda after what he described as the “absolute nightmare” of the pandemic, the Prime Minister will unveil what he described as a ‘new deal’ focusing on jobs and infrastructure.

Pledging to bring forward capital investments worth £5bn, he will promise £1.5bn will be spent on hospital maintenance and improving A&E capacity this year.

Some £100m will also be spent on road projects including improving the quality of the A15 in the Humber region, with a further £10m to unblock the bottleneck on Manchester’s railways which has a knock-on-effect on the rest of the North.

A further £900m has been promised for “shovel ready” local growth projects and £96m to speed up investment in town centres and high streets.

However, opposition MPs accused him of not offering any new ideas and trying to “hoodwink” voters with rehashed manifesto promises.

But the National Infrastructure Strategy, originally due to be part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s March Budget and setting a clear direction on core economic infrastructure, including energy networks, road and rail, flood defences and waste, will not be published until Autumn.

Number 10 said last night that the PM wanted to set a “path to balance the books” in the long-term after spending billions to stop the economy collapsing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But a spokeswoman said he was “clear that we will not do so at the expense of investing now in the productive potential of the economy, or at the expense of the resilience of the UK’s public services.”

The Prime Minister said he is preparing for an effort comparable to Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal following the Great Depression in the US in the 1930s.

And in his speech he will say his plan was meant to “sound positively Rooseveltian” because “that is what the times demand”.

He will say: “This is a government that is wholly committed not just to defeating coronavirus but to using this crisis finally to tackle this country’s great unresolved challenges of the last three decades.

“To build the homes, to fix the NHS, to tackle the skills crisis, to mend the indefensible gap in opportunity and productivity and connectivity between the regions of the UK. To unite and level up.

“To that end we will build build build. Build back better, build back greener, build back faster and to do that at the pace that this moment requires.”

Tom Lees, Director of the centre-right Northern Policy Foundation think-tank, said: "At the General Election, the North dramatically turned blue and backed Boris - now the Prime Minister is looking to repay that trust.

"Roosevelt's New Deal transformed the US for the better, hopefully, the Prime Minister's will do the same and improve lives across Yorkshire."

Henri Murison, Director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, representing civic and business leaders, said: “The scale of ambition of this ‘Roosevelt’s New Deal’ cannot merely be rhetoric, but must also be met by the full commitment of public and private resources necessary.

"The £10 million towards completing the Northern Hub in Manchester will help curtail delays for trains crossing West to East as far as Newcastle and Hull, but there is a need to accelerate projects like the Trans Pennine Route Upgrade electrification and start building HS2 from Leeds to the Midlands, including related upgrades and the new Northern Powerhouse Rail line through Bradford.

“£900 million for shovel ready projects is not enough for the amount of jobs which could be generated by accelerating delivery in our cities and wider regions across the North alone, which is why releasing local investment capacity of up to £5 billion at the local level is so necessary.

“History teaches us that the New Deal only worked because the scale of its aspiration was met by spending on the ground to match, and if this is a start in that direction and not the limit of what is to be built then it is to be welcomed. Otherwise, the Deal will not meet the promises made of closing the North – South divide made previously by the Prime Minister when he first took up his office."

As part of the plan, the Government is making a 10-year undertaking to improve school facilities, along with sprucing up classrooms currently in use.

Downing Street said a £1 billion cash injection would see construction work start on the first 50 projects as soon as September 2021.

However, Labour said the promised spending would need to reverse a “lost decade” of stagnant investment in many parts of the country.

New analysis by the party suggested that seven of England’s nine regions saw a reduction in public capital investment per person over the past 10 years since the Conservatives came to power.

In some parts of the country, including Yorkshire, East Midlands and the South West, investment per person is still less than half that seen in London, Labour said.

In an interview with the newly-launched Times Radio yesterday, Mr Johnson acknowledged that coronavirus has been a “disaster” for the UK but insisted the country will pull through.

“This has been a disaster, let’s not mince our words, this has been an absolute nightmare for the country,” he said. “The country has gone through a profound shock. But in those moments you have the opportunity to change and to do things better.”