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Labour will examine every ongoing major infrastructure project to “get Britain building again on day one” after it wins a general election, Rachel Reeves has said.
The shadow chancellor said that Louise Haigh, her front bench colleague responsible for transport, will also commission an independent expert inquiry into the HS2 fiasco “to learn lessons for the future”.
Politics Live: Rachel Reeves vows to ‘rebuild Britain’
In a speech at the Labour Party conference, Ms Reeves said the high-speed rail line was not the only project that had gone over time and over budget, with others at risk of not being delivered.
She said: “When it comes to getting things built… Britain has become the sick man of Europe, with HS2 coming in at 10-times the cost of the French equivalent.
“And that is why our shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, will commission an independent expert inquiry into HS2 to learn the lessons for the future because many more major government capital projects are over time, over budget and are in danger of going undelivered.”
As well as the inquiry, Labour said it will act to prevent a repeat of HS2 by creating a new cross-government unit to keep major infrastructure projects under control.
The unit would be responsible for ensuring projects are delivered on time and on budget and report directly to the prime minister and the chancellor.
Ms Reeves said ahead of this, she had asked Darren Jones, the shadow treasury minister, to work with industry experts “to examine line by line every major capital project”.
This would help “make sure that on day one of a Labour government, we are ready to get Britain building again”.
“If The Tories won’t build, if the Tories can’t build, then we will,” she said.
Ms Reeves went on to to explain Labour’s proposals to reform Britain’s “antiquated planning system” to speed up the building of crucial infrastructure.
This includes fast-tracking planning applications for battery factories, laboratories and…
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