Build, Build, Build: UK PM Announces Allocation Of Infrastructure Budget

PM's Build Build Build Speech took place 30th June 2020

‘Build Build Build’ Mr Johnson places emphasis on the Construction Sector in Speech

Today (30th June 2020), Boris Johnson announced ‘the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War’ shedding light on how £5 Billion will be spent on infrastructure projects.

Projects in the £5bn investment plan include:

  • £1.5bn for hospital maintenance, eradicating mental health dormitories, enabling hospital building and improving A&E capacity
  • £100m for 29 road network projects including bridge repairs in Sandwell and improving the A15 in the Humber region
  • £900m for “shovel ready” local projects in England this year and in 2021
  • £500,000 – £1m for each area in the towns fund to spend on improvements to parks, high street and transport
  • Over £1bn to fund a schools building project, as announced on Monday
  • £83m for maintenance of prisons and youth offender facilities, and £60m for temporary prison places.

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In his speech, Mr Johnson pledged to put jobs and infrastructure at the forefront of economic growth.

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 solve social care, 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, and to that end we will build, build, build.

Boris Johnson
UK Prime Minister

For the construction industry, who have been greatly impacted by the ongoing coronavirus, Mr Johnson’s speech has been received with mixed response.

On one side of the argument, the industry is at the heart of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy. Here, the construction has a chance to play an instrumental role in the UK’s recovery from the pandemic. Companies have an opportunity to show themselves vital components within the landscape of this newly built Britain.

On the other hand, critics argue that in his speech, no ‘new money’ has been put on the table, that the industry needs more man power, and that Mr Johnson’s Government will soon see just how much the construction industry is effected by an ongoing and severe skills gap.

However, in the case that these critics are correct, it is now more important than ever for the UK construction industry to effectively communicate the effects of this skills gap with Mr Johnson’s government.


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