Local MP, Caroline Dinenage, welcomes the ‘build build build’ New Deal for Britain which puts jobs and infrastructure at the centre of the government’s economic growth strategy.
The New Deal includes £5bn of capital investment projects, supporting jobs and the economic recovery, including:
• £1.5bn this year for hospital maintenance, eradicating mental health dormitories, enabling hospital building, and improving A&E capacity.
• £100m this year for 29 projects in our road network to get Britain moving.
• Over £1bn to fund the first 50 projects of a new, ten-year school rebuilding programme, starting from 2020-21.
• £560m and £200m for repairs and upgrades to schools and FE colleges respectively this year.
• £142m for digital upgrades and maintenance to around 100 courts this year, £83m for maintenance of prisons and youth offender facilities, and £60m for temporary prison places, creating thousands of new jobs.
• £900m for a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the course of this year and next, as well as £96m to accelerate investment in town centres and high streets through the Towns Fund this year.
To protect the UK’s natural infrastructure, the New Deal recommits to reforest Britain by planting over 75,000 acres of trees every year by 2025 and pledged £40m to boost local conservation projects and create 3000 jobs, including new Conservation Rangers, and safeguard a further 2000 – training young people and others in the community to protect their local environments. This will go a long way to safeguard the UK’s natural carbon stores and wildlife habitats – our meadows, rivers, and local green spaces – which are central to capturing and removing CO2 from the atmosphere, protecting precious biodiversity, and connecting people with nature.
Commenting, Caroline said:
“This government is committed to building an economy that works for working people across the country. This New Deal is an infrastructure revolution: building infrastructure, building jobs and building healthcare through a bold programme of national renewal, uniting and levelling up the UK.
I am pleased to see this vital investment across our country, this is not only good news for Britain but is also good news for the Gosport Constituency.”
The Prime Minister said:
“If we deliver this plan together, then we will together build our way back to health.
We will not just bounce back, we will bounce forward – stronger and better and more united than ever before.”
To support the ambition to ‘build build build’, in the Autumn the government will also publish a National Infrastructure Strategy which will set a clear direction on core economic infrastructure, including energy networks, road and rail, flood defences and waste.
