Autumn Statement: East West Rail will proceed, confirms Chancellor
East West Rail will be “funded as promised”, the Chancellor has confirmed in the Autumn Statement.
Jeremy Hunt warned the UK is in a recession and is unveiling a £54billion package of tax hikes and spending cuts.
But as he aims to put the country back on path to stability by tackling inflation, which has soared to a 41-year high, he said it would be a mistake to pull back from infrastructure investment.
East West Rail, a new line from Oxford to Cambridge expected to cost around £5bn, is already under way, but there were question marks over whether the Bedford to Cambridge section would proceed as planned amid heated debate over the route.
Mr Hunt told the House of Commons: “When looking for cuts, capital is sometimes seen as an easy option. But doing so limits not our budgets, but our future, so today I can announce that I’m not cutting a penny from our capital budgets in the next two years and maintaining them at that level, in cash terms, for the following three years.
“That means, that although we’re not growing our capital budget as planned, it will still increase from £63bn four years ago to £114bn next year, £115bn the year after and remain at that level - more than double what it was under the last Labour government.
“Smart countries build on their long-term commitments, rather than discard them.
“So today I confirm that because of this decision, alongside Sizewell C, we will deliver the Core Northern Powerhouse Rail, HS2 to Manchester and East West Rail and the new hospitals programme, and gigabit broadband rollout.
“All these and more will be funded as promised with over £600bn of investment over the next five years to connect our country and grow our economy.”
Former transport secretary Grant Shapps had said in July that he would scrap the remaining sections of East West Rail to save money.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves said “ordinary working people were paying the price” for the Tories’ mismanagement of the economy.
She compared the government to pickpockets, saying: “In the last hour, the Conservatives have picked the pockets of purses and wallets of the entire country, as the chancellor has deployed a raft of stealth taxes taking billions of pounds from working people.”
Amid double-digit inflation, she suggested that with the frozen personal tax allowance people would be typically £600 worse off and added that the Chancellor had unleashed a “council tax bombshell” which will lead to a £100 rise for a typical Band D property, taking its total to more than £2,000 for the first time.
More to follow.
