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Budget 2016: More detail still needed on key projects

Chancellor George Osborne delivers his Budget in Parliament.

While welcoming many of the measures contained in the chancellor’s Budget, Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) chief executive Nelson Ogunshakin said he also wanted to see firmer government support for key projects and more details on planned infrastructure improvements.

Commenting on George Osborne’s announcements, Ogunshakin said: “The concerns around global economic conditions meant that when the chancellor stood up to deliver his Budget today, his room for manoeuvre was restricted and that is what we saw. Infrastructure still did well, with announcements bringing forward road and rail projects that will facilitate the Northern Powerhouse, and we were pleased to see the chancellor adopt ACE’s recommendations on zonal housing development, as well as the devolution of business rates to London by 2017.

“There were also welcome announcements about Crossrail 2 and High Speed 3, however the exact detail on what government commitments would be were not in the chancellor’s speech and we will be looking carefully at the fine details to see what this support entails. These important projects must receive government support if they are to go ahead and equip the UK to face the challenges of the 21st century.

“It is also important that we do not lose sight of existing projects going through, which are yet to be delivered. The HS2 Bill has still to go through its third reading and much of the agenda mentioned above is dependent on this. We would urge the government to ensure that its focus is not deflected at this crucial time, otherwise all plans for delivering new world class infrastructure networks may end up in tatters."

Download ACE’s 2016 Budget analysis here.

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