Prime Minister announces £15 billion 'roads revolution'

The Prime Minister told business leaders that he would spend £15 billion by the end of the decade on a road-building programme, understood to include hundreds of extra lane miles on motorways and trunk roads as part of a "roads revolution" to speed up journey times.

Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference in London, Mr Cameron said that the coalition Government inherited a "weak" position on infrastructure, after the previous Labour administration delivered "the lowest infrastructure investment of any OECD country" between 2000 and 2007.

But he said he was determined to ensure that " as a country we have the infrastructure that can deliver a successful modern economy for the entire nation" and was able to offer "a big investment only possible because we have managed our nation's finances effectively".

Mr Cameron said: "W e are now not only spending as much on rail as any Government since Victorian times, but on roads we are spending more than any Government since the big expansion of the 1970s.

"Between now and 2020, we have plans for £15 billion of road spending. That could lead to an extra 100 schemes being undertaken on our roads, and we are looking specifically at those pinch points, those problem areas, that businesses and people have told us about, and told us are so essential."

Mr Cameron said he had resisted pressure to cut spending on infrastructure as part of the austerity drive to reduce Britain's national deficit. As well as spending on transport links, he said he was "very, very proud" that Britain's nuclear sector was being revived as part of an "absolutely vital" investment in energy production and believed that it was essential to improve broadband communication networks.

"We've had to take difficult decisions in terms of spending, in terms of efficiencies, but we have prioritised infrastructure spending," he said.

"It would have been very easy as Prime Minister, faced with the decisions I had to take, to cancel Crossrail, to give up on HS2, not to talk about electrification of railways, not to talk about road or energy investment. I rejected that approach.

"I know that for Britain to succeed we've got to make those infrastructure investments.

What I can say today is we will continue to complete Crossrail, we will continue the work on HS2. I think the vision of HS3, creating a Northern powerhouse across our country, is extremely powerful."

AA president Edmund King welcomed the announcement, saying: "Roads carry 90% of goods and people and are our biggest transport asset and so it makes perfect sense to upgrade them to help the UK economy by improving journey times for people and business."

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