Latest news with #DarrenJones
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Treasury borrows more than expected despite rising tax revenues
The Treasury borrowed more than expected during the month of May, official figures show, despite increasing receipts from Rachel Reeves's tax raid. Public sector net borrowing was £17.7bn last month, which was £600m higher than the £17.1bn that had been forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility. It was also £700m higher than May last year despite Rachel Reeves's Budget tax raid aimed at shoring up the nation's finances. The rise comes despite central government's tax receipts hitting £82.5bn in May, which was £5.3bn more than in the same month last year. Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, insisted the latest borrowing figures showed the Government has 'stabilised the economy and the public finances'. Treasury borrowing was higher than OBR forecasts in May but was better than expected during the first two months of the financial year. Public sector borrowing was reached £37.7bn in April and May, which was £1.6bn more than the same period last year but £2.9bn less than the £40.7bn forecast by the OBR. Darren Jones said: 'Since taking office, we have taken the right decisions to protect working people, begin repairing the NHS, and fix the foundations to rebuild Britain. We stabilised the economy and the public finances; now we need to ensure that the British economy delivers for working people. 'Last week's Spending Review showed how we are investing in the UK's security, health, and the economy through our Plan for Change, so that people are better off.'
South Wales Guardian
12 hours ago
- Business
- South Wales Guardian
Maintenance fund to give £9bn a year to fix schools, hospitals and prisons
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said £6 billion a year would go to repairing hospitals, £3 billion to schools and colleges and £600 million to courts and prisons as part of Labour's plans for 'national renewal'. The maintenance fund is part of the minimum £725 billion committed to boost infrastructure in the 10-year plan, he told the Commons. The Government hopes this preventative action will break the cycle of emergency repairs in public infrastructure. It will go towards making court facilities better in a bid to reduce backlogs, and improving safety and security in prisons across England and Wales. Removing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) will be among the measures taken to update health facilities. The Treasury minister told MPs: 'Done properly it will result in tangible improvements to the fabric of our country, our local roads and high streets renewed so communities are even better places to live. Our public transport more available and more reliable, making it easier for people to get around and access opportunities. 'Our schools and hospitals and GP surgeries fit for the future to deliver for generations to come, and a country that will be stronger and more resilient. 'Communities will see the difference as this Labour Government delivers on the promise of change and a decade of national renewal.' The strategy also includes £1 billion to fix roads, bridges and flyovers and £590 million to start work on the Lower Thames Crossing project. Some £16 billion of public investment will go towards building 500,000 new homes through a new publicly owned National Housing Bank. This is expected to unlock more than £53 billion of private investment. Around £7.9 billion over 10 years will be invested in maintaining and creating new flood defences with the aim of benefiting 840,000 properties. The strategy covers a decade but the spending review cycle every two years will provide a juncture to decide whether to go ahead with projects. A 'pipeline' of projects will be published online in mid-July and will be updated every six months. The chief secretary's shadow counterpart Richard Fuller urged him to set out which major projects are being abandoned and explain why. The pipeline is a digital dashboard that will give an overview of projects the Government is procuring on a map, Mr Jones said in response. 'It will show on a map of the country which projects we're procuring, when and where to give investors and businesses that long-term confidence about the jobs that are going to be available, so that they can invest in their own workforce,' he said. The strategy does not cover so-called megaprojects which cost more than £10 billion and take more than 10 years to deliver – currently the HS2 railway, Sizewell C nuclear plant and the Dreadnought submarine programme. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: 'Infrastructure is crucial to unlocking growth across the country, but for too long investment has been squeezed. Crumbling public buildings are a sign of the decay that has seeped into our everyday lives because of a total failure to plan and invest. 'We're not just fixing buildings – we're enhancing public services, improving lives and creating the conditions for sustainable economic growth in communities throughout the UK. We're delivering on a decade of national renewal we promised Britain. 'This will deliver the decade of national renewal we promised Britain, and fulfil our Plan for Change goals to kickstart economic growth, and build an NHS fit for the future.'
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Hospitals, schools and courts to get funding boost
The UK government has pledged more money for "crumbling" hospitals, schools and courts as part of a ten year infrastructure strategy. It will spend £9bn a year over the next decade to fix and replace buildings, but is yet to publish a list identifying major projects such as new roads and rail strategy is a cornerstone of the government's plans to put some life into Britain's sluggish economic growth, and promises £725bn of funding over a announcements on Thursday focussed on what the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones called a "soaring maintenance backlog" in health, education and justice buildings. The strategy promised a more rounded plan for major schemes, but the publication of a new pipeline of hundreds of projects has been delayed until said the projects will be shown on a map of the said the government would be doing "fewer things better instead of the same things badly", a sign that the list of more than 600 projects inherited from the Conservatives may be cut was no formal green light at this stage for the long-promised northern high-speed rail link between Liverpool and for the link were first revealed in May 2024 after the cancellation of HS2's northern Treasury also indicated it was looking at new models for funding economic projects, including public private partnerships, and would report back by the autumn Rachel Reeves said: "Crumbling public buildings are a sign of the decay that has seeped into our everyday lives because of a total failure to plan and invest."But Conservative shadow minister Richard Fuller said the previous government "had to deal with a series of economic disruptions including the impact of Covid, the unwinding of quantitative easing across all advanced economies, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia"."The global impact of these were to disrupt supply chains, increase inflation, and raise interest rates, " Fuller these shocks, the last government increased public spending on capital projects, he said. The £725bn will be spent on projects including rebuilding and maintaining schools, colleges, and hospitals, and prisons will be will be an environmental planning reform package of £500m over three years to speed up how Natural England and the Environment Agency process planning £8bn will go on flood defences over the ten years, and £1bn has been earmarked for repairing bridges, flyovers and is £39bn for affordable homes, and £15.6bn for regional Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the investments "will both boost productivity and support the decarbonisation of our economy".
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Maintenance isn't sexy, but Farage on the other hand ...
There was an odd conjunction of stories in Thursday's papers as the European Space Agency declared its goal of establishing a 'plentiful habitat' for humans on Mars within 15 years, while the UK Government admitted that it had stopped trying to guess when trains will ever run on HS2, a project that began (check notes) 15 years ago. Perhaps by 2040, the visions will merge and passengers in London will be able to buy plentiful Mars bars as they wait for a cancelled train. But the past 15 years have not been wasted: they managed to move the departure boards at Euston and put them back again when people complained. One small step for man, one giant leap for Network Rail. Despite Britain's recent track record, Darren Jones bounced into the Commons to announce a new 10-year plan for infrastructure. It will cost £725 billion, so with the usual overshoot we can expect that to pass £2 trillion and involve three potholes being filled and a new light in the gents at Victoria. Yet the chief secretary to the Treasury was full of aspiration and ambition. He is fond of alliteration and promised to go 'further and faster' and act more 'effectively and efficiently' than the Tories. Tall, bespectacled, with a neatly parted hairstyle and a slightly unsettling grin (imagine him played by Mark Gatiss), Jones is not a man who lacks belief. Asked by Jerome Mayhew, a Norfolk Tory, how he could be confident of delivering better value than the last Labour government got under PFI (private finance initiative), he merely replied: 'I am usually confident in my abilities.' He is armed with a 'new online infrastructure pipeline' (not quite ready) and a new acronym: Nista, which stands for the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. I noted that it was formed on April Fool's Day. 'That's a very shiny title,' sneered John Cooper, Tory MP for Dumfries and Galloway, who said it would be met with an 'eye-rolling sigh'. Jones replied that he had closed two bodies before creating it. 'So it's actually down one,' he said, flashing his fingers to show that he can count. A rare moment in infrastructure planning when a number falls. As more attacks flew in from Welsh and Scottish MPs, who felt they weren't getting enough of the pie, the suave chief secretary showed a touch of exasperation. 'You might want to be a little more grateful,' Jones told David Chadwick, a Lib Dem from Brecon. Generally, though, he was tiggerish, not only about building things but keeping them from falling down. 'Maintenance isn't sexy,' he said, 'but it's really important.' Maintaining a Labour government especially. Speaking of sexy, Richard Tice had risen during the business statement earlier to cry 'phwoar' about his party leader. This is the weekly session when MPs can ask for a debate on any topic under the sun and the Government will pretend (or not) that it cares. Its purpose is to generate tweets and press releases for MPs to send to their local papers about whatever is dominating their postbag. The Skegness Standard will note, therefore, that of all the subjects that its Reform MP could have brought up, he chose Nigel Farage being named Britain's sexiest male politician in a poll for an infidelity dating website. Tice asked Lucy Powell, the leader of the House, to join him in congratulating Farage on being the philanderers' pin-up and also Angela Rayner, who won the women's category. 'Does she recommend that they have dinner together?' he asked. Powell pursed her lips and replied that, tempting offer though it was, she suspected that the Deputy Prime Minister would be washing her hair every night from here to eternity. There's more chance of getting a bypass built on time.
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Ministers set out plans to spend £725bn on UK infrastructure over 10 years
Ministers have pledged to spend £9bn a year on fixing crumbling schools, hospitals, courts and prisons over the next decade as part of the government's infrastructure strategy. Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, set out plans on Thursday to spend a minimum of £725bn over 10 years to boost UK-wide infrastructure and achieve a 'national renewal'. Jones announced that £6bn a year would go to repairing hospitals in England, £3bn to fixing and upgrading schools and colleges in England and £600m to courts and prisons in England and Wales. The money will fund building improvements including removing crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in hospitals and strengthening safety and security in prisons. Jones told MPs: 'Done properly it will result in tangible improvements to the fabric of our country, our local roads and high streets renewed so communities are even better places to live.' The strategy also includes £1bn to fix roads, bridges and flyovers across the UK and £590m to start work on the Lower Thames Crossing project. Some £16bn will go towards building 500,000 new homes through a new publicly owned National Housing Bank. Richard Fuller, the Conservative shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, urged ministers to set out which major projects are being abandoned and explain why. Business and industry groups, who have long argued the need for a long-term vision to provide certainty and encourage investment, broadly welcomed the strategy – although the government portal of actual projects will not now be launched online for another month. This project 'pipeline' will be updated every six months. Alex Vaughan, the CEO of construction and engineering firm Costain, said the launch was 'a crucial step towards ending the short-termism that has held our sector back'. The Railway Industry Association chief executive, Darren Caplan, said a 10-year strategy and the commitment to publish a pipeline in July was extremely welcome, adding: 'We look forward to seeing the full details of the pipeline, which will need to give businesses sufficient clarity to plan ahead.' Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: 'A government operating within the spending rules it has set for itself demonstrates real commitment – one that can unlock private investment and finance, which will take confidence from this stability.' John Dickie, chief executive at BusinessLDN, said it showed welcome government recognition 'that Britain needs a clear, committed, long-term pipeline of future public investment to give the private sector the confidence to invest'. Sam Gould, director of policy at the Institution of Civil Engineer, said it was 'a significant moment' with lots of positives, but added: 'The sector will need more information on private finance models, and on how [it] will meet the demands of our changing climate.' The strategy does not cover so-called megaprojects, which cost more than £10bn and take more than 10 years to deliver. These include the HS2 railway, Sizewell C nuclear plant and the Dreadnought submarine programme.
