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  1. Business
  2. Economics
12 February 2013

Labour turns its guns on Osborne’s infrastructure failures

New figures show that just seven of the 576 infrastructure projects planned by the coalition have been completed.

By George Eaton

When Nick Clegg recently conceded that the coalition had cut infrastructure spending too fast after coming to power, he took care to assure us that all was now well. “I think we’ve all realised that you actually need, in order to foster a recovery, to try and mobilise as much public and private capital into infrastructure as possible,” the Deputy PM said. 

While one welcomes the government’s belated conversion to the merits of counter-cyclical spending (a rare concession to its Keynesian critics), the early results are not encouraging. Labour will use an opposition debate today to highlight new Treasury figures showing that just seven (1.2 per cent) of the 576 infrastructure projects planned by the coalition are “completed” or “operational” and that most of these are road schemes began under the last government. In addition, just 18.2 per cent of the projects are said to have “started” or to be “in construction” or “under construction”.  

Clegg himself has previously expressed frustration over the timelag between projects being announced and completed. He remarked in a speech to the LSE in September 2011: “A key blockage is actually within government: Whitehall. Identifying projects and funnelling cash to them can take time – I understand that. These are big investments, and you have to get the detail right. But failure to deliver major infrastructure projects on time and on budget is a perennial problem in the UK.”

The government’s failure to improve its performance on this front is a matter of concern to the Lib Dems, with some blaming George Osborne’s preference for Treasury “guarantees” over direct spending. In her column today, the Times’s Rachel Sylvester reports that “Clegg and other senior Lib Dems are convinced that the Government needs to loosen the public purse strings and spend even more on infrastructure to stimulate the economy”. 

After Clegg claimed that the coalition’s capital spending cuts were “no more than what Alistair Darling spelt out anyway”, Labour will also point to OBR figures (see below) showing that the government has spent £12.8bn less than Darling planned. 

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Year

Public Sector Gross Investment – OBR forecast of Labour plans

Public Sector Gross Investment under the Conservative-led government

Difference

2010-11

£61.3bn

£58.1bn

£-3.2bn

2011-12

£50.7bn

£47.8bn

£-2.9bn

2012-13

£48.4bn

£41.7bn

£-6.7bn

The last time Rachel Reeves cited these figures, George Osborne accused her of “not being completely straight”, a remark which earned him a rebuke from the Speaker. 

But even if one discounts the numbers for 2012-13 (which is still ongoing), the data shows that the coalition spent £6.1bn less in its first two years than Labour would have. Little wonder that the Lib Dems are urging Osborne to finally loosen the fiscal taps.

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