Osborne promises commission to prevent infrastructure delays

Former Labour Transport Secretary Lord Adonis will lead the National Infrastructure Commission which appears designed to stop future projects becoming mired in the same delays that have hit attempts to increase airport capacity in the South-East.

One of Lord Adonis’s first priorities will be to “transform the connectivity of the Northern cities” understood to be an assessment of the proposal to delivering high speed rail across the North.

However, the Chancellor is likely to face criticism that he is duplicating effort given that Transport for the North, a body he created, is already looking at high speed rail as part of its remit.

The Chancellor will say in his speech to the Conservative Party conference today: “I’m not prepared to turn round to my children - or indeed anyone else’s child - and say: I’m sorry, we didn’t build for you...

“We have to shake out of this inertia on the projects that matter most.”

The Chancellor will promise £5 billion of extra spending on infrastructure by 2020, funded by asset sales, while 89 council pension funds will be pooled to create six new British Wealth Funds in an effort to divert cash into British infrastructure rather than seeking overseas opportunities.

Each fund is expected to have assets of £25bn to invest.

However this pledge for an infrastructure master-plan with its northern priorities comes as new research suggests the Chancellor’s Northern Powerhouse plan will not close the gap between growth in the North and South.

The capital’s economy will grow almost twice as fast as Leeds and Sheffield over the next ten years, according to the study which also found the amount of new jobs created could be significantly lower than London.

The joint study by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economic & Business Research (Cebr)says London’s economy is expected to grow by 27 per cent between 2015 and 2025 to just under £450bn, while Leeds will grow 17.1 per cent, Sheffield by 15.8 per cent and Hull by 12.8 per cent.%

While London can expect 11.1 per cent growth in employment up until 2025 creating 548,142 jobs, this compares to 6.9 per cent in Sheffield, 7.6 per cent in Leeds and 8.6 per cent in Greater Manchester.

However Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, who last week announced that plans to electrify the Midland Mainline and TransPennine route will now restart, said the North could grow as fast as London through connectivity with train station investment.

He said: “If we give them the right infrastructure they will be able to achieve it.”

The Conservative Party conference got underway in Manchester yesterday and was targeted by large scale protests.