Treasury lifts infrastructure spending ceiling

The Treasury has lifted the ceiling on public sector spending on infrastructure spending from 1-1.2% of gross national product between 2020 and 2050 to 1.1-1.3% between 2025 and 2055.

And in a revision of the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC’s) role, the Treasury has included a new objective to the NIC “to support climate resilience and the transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050” and a responsibility to consider how the its recommendations contribute to government’s legal target to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.

The increase in the infrastructure public spending limit – the “fiscal remit” – announced alongside the Budget, will inform the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC’s) approach to the second National Infrastructure Assessment, scheduled for publication in 2023.

Chair of the NIC, Sir John Armitt, said: “The fiscal remit ensures our work is grounded within a realistic fiscal context and helps ensure our independent policy recommendations are adopted. Raising the ceiling on the remit in this way could represent billions of pounds of extra funding for infrastructure over the long term.”