Boris Johnson to unveil latest coronavirus recovery plan echoing former US President.
BORIS Johnson is due to unveil plans for a £5 billion "infrastructure revolution" this morning in a speech which he has dubbed "Rooseveltian". This is a reference to policies set out by US President Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930s, who set about rebuilding the US economy following the Great Depression.
In his announcement this morning, Johnson is expected to place a new emphasis on infrastructure in post-pandemic Britain, urging the country to “build, build, build”.
He is expected to comment on constructing homes, fixing the NHS and tackling a shortage of skilled jobs in the UK.
He will also mention a decentralisation of power, with the idea being, in his words: “to mend the indefensible gap in opportunity and productivity and connectivity between the regions of the UK”.
The speech will be delivered from the West Midlands town of Dudley this morning – though the exact time is unclear.
The location of the speech may not be entirely coincidental. It follows reports that the Midlands and the North are set to receive a big part of the government’s investment into the plans, according to Birmingham Live.
Johnson is expected to say later today: “It sounds positively Rooseveltian. It sounds like a New Deal. All I can say is that if so, then that is how it is meant to sound and to be, because that is what the times demand.
“A government that is powerful and determined and that puts its arms around people at a time of crisis.
“This is a government that is wholly committed not just to defeating coronavirus but to using this crisis finally to tackle this country’s great unresolved challenges of the last three decades.”
Sky News reports that the £5 billion pledged by the prime minister tomorrow will include: £1.5bn for hospital maintenance; at least £1bn towards a decade-long school rebuilding initiative and £560m for school repairs and upgrades; and £100 million for 29 road network plans.
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