Is a government backed infrastructure bank on the way?
There would appear to moves within the UK government to introduce a "government backed infrastructure bank" which will be used primarily to raise funds for projects in the public sector. A new Treasury specialist unit has been set up to look at the infrastructure in the UK and identify large-scale projects in the utilities, transport, waste and the telecom sectors. However, there is some dispute as to how funds can be raised in the short to medium term to meet the cost of these projects.
Apparently the government will need around £200 billion of infrastructure investment over the next decade and it is unclear at this moment in time where this finance will come from. However, slowly but surely we are seeing support growing for a government backed infrastructure bank which would primarily act as a link between the government, private capital and the public sector. Quite how this would work is unclear but there is certainly a need to bring in outside capital to improve the UK infrastructure and build on recently announced projects such as the nationwide broadband network.
On the surface it looks as though the UK government is still very keen to push ahead with the "major" large-scale public sector projects in the pipeline although in reality many could be delayed while the UK plc balance-sheet is replenished and restocked.
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