As Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s Autumn Budget approaches, Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has urged the government to invest more in big projects in London.
Khan said that investment in the capital’s transport infrastructure will help to unlock new homes and hobs to uplift local economies and turbocharge growth in the city.
He pointed to the Elizabeth line as a prime example of a major infrastructure project that delivers significant returns for the city while improving transport options for London commuters and visitors to the apital.
The Elizabeth line has facilitated more than half a billion journeys in its first two and a half years and create thousands of jobs and housebuilding opportunities.
With Reeves’s budget set for November, Khan is advocating for more government investment in London’s infrastructure, arguing that the growth sought by the government can only be achieved through amitious major projects.
“The truth is that, in a decade of managed decline under the previous government, Britain lost our belief that we can build big things,” Khan said.
“As the pipeline of projects dried up, our country came to rely on creaking infrastructure with no plan to replace it. Now, though, we have a chance to begin a new chapter.”
“This idea that decisions about infrastructure investment should be a zero-sum game, where we pit parts of the country against one another, is not only deeply damaging – it defies economic reality. The stats show that investing in London makes the whole country stronger, and vice versa,” he said.
“This Government is already rediscovering our Victorian spirit, green-lighting a record number of major infrastructure projects in its first year. But, if they’re serious about growth – which I know they are – they’ve got to get behind the capital.”
“The route to levelling up the rest of the country does not lie in levelling down London, but in ensuring that all parts of the country can share in the other’s success,” Khan added.
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