The chancellor’s deputy has set out a planned £752bn investment in infrastructure over next decade.

Announcing the long-anticipated 10-year Infrastructure Strategy in Parliament today (19 June) chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, said infrastructure was the “key to unlocking growth across the country”.

The strategy sets out a long-term plan for how the government will invest in infrastructure and ensure that funding is spent effectively and efficiently, marking a new approach to how projects are planned and delivered.  

Government says it will also encourage inward investment by providing a long-term vision that gives investors the confidence and certainty they need to commit funding to projects, creating job opportunities and boosting living standards for people across the country.

These plans are backed by at least £725bn of government funding over the coming decade, from which at least £9bn will be allocated in 2025-26 to address the critical maintenance needs of health, education and justice estates, rising to more than £10bn per year by 2034-35.  

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), established by the government this year, will work with partners across government and industry to effectively implement the strategy across the whole of the UK. 

Jones said a new pipeline of what, where and when key infrastructure projects would be built, would be published before the summer recess in July.

NISTA will set out the new Infrastructure Pipeline which, over time, will provide a single source of data across the major infrastructure market.

As part of the strategy, critical maintenance investment will deliver tangible improvements for people across the country with more than £6bn per year for the heath sector to create safer hospital environments across.  In education investment in school and college maintenance will rise to almost £3bn annually and at least £600m per year will go to the justice system to improve safety and security in prisons across England and Wales, reducing incidents and creating environments more conducive to rehabilitation.

Becky Wood, CEO of NISTA, said: “This investment is a welcome part of the 10-year Infrastructure Strategy and will help us to address some of the challenges that our key public services have faced over recent years.  

“Strategic preventative maintenance based on longer-term plans is a more effective approach than making decisions in the absence of certainty about the future - and will ensure our vital public services remain resilient and fit for purpose.

“By approaching replacement and maintenance of our infrastructure in an informed and systematic way, we can target interventions effectively and plan properly for the future.”

Earlier this week the government announced the largest flooding programme in history as part of the Infrastructure Strategy, with a record £7.9bn committed over 10 years to protect hundreds of thousands of homes, small businesses and vital infrastructure from the growing threat of flooding.

A £1bn Structures Fund will also inject cash into repairing run down bridges, decaying flyovers and worn out tunnels across Britain, and ensure other transport infrastructure is more resilient to extreme weather events and to the demands of modern transport.

Plus £590m was announced for work to start work on the Lower Thames Crossing. 

Click here to read the full Infrastructure Strategy.