Nick Maltby, partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP believes that Nick Clegg's announcement this week that forty projects expected to promote economic growth will be given priority is another smoke screen for no new investment or infrastructure projects.
"I've searched high and low for details of the exact forty projects Nick Clegg has eluded to, and beyond hi-speed broadband, improvements to the national grid and the Crossrail project - it's hard to pin them down," said Nick Maltby.
"I fear that this is just another smoke screen for there being no new investment into the infrastructure that we badly need to promote economic growth in the UK. They are existing projects that have been caught up in Whitehall red tape - not new projects.
"In the last 18 months we've witnessed the Government criticise PFIs and undermine the planning system so that no one knows how to get projects delivered - creating havoc for any infrastructure project.
"The Infrastructure Costs Review and the McNulty report on transport, not to mention the Green Investment Bank all seem to have disappeared completely - so I'm wondering where the concrete plans are for turning the situation around?
"The National Infrastructure Plan next month is a big opportunity not to be wasted to make some clear commitments, which may include investment, to get the economy going again. But the Government must be clearer and provide some concrete evidence of how it will happen."
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