Government plans £50bn infrastructure boost

The government is planning to make housing and infrastructure the centrepiece of a £50 billion growth plan that it will unveil later this month.Chancellor George Osborne yesterday said that he accepted the need for the government to go further in economic growth. “We need to have more initiatives and more government plans to help stimulate housing, get homes being built, help construction, help with more infrastructure, help small businesses get credit,” he told the BBC’s Politics Show on Sunday.

“I accept all of that and we are going to announce plans for all of those things in the coming weeks.”It is anticipated that the government will announce its growth plan alongside its autumn financial statement on November 29.However, it is expected that the majority of the £50 billion investment in the growth plan will be sought from the private sector via institutional investors such as pension funds. This expectation was attacked by shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who described the growth plan as flawed.