Minister hints at changes to infrastructure investment rules

A Treasury minister has confirmed the government will shortly update important rules around how it invests public money in key infrastructure projects.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate yesterday (11 November), the exchequer secretary Kemi Badenoch said the government is planning to publish the updated Treasury Green Book at the spending review, which is due to take place later this month.

The Green Book is the guidance used by the Treasury to appraise and evaluate policies, infrastructure projects and programmes.

During the debate, several MPs criticised the current Green Book rules.

Sheffield city region mayor and Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis called for the Green Book to be reformed to ‘reduce the in-built bias towards more affluent areas in government investment decisions’.

Another Labour MP, Judith Cummins said it ‘skews investment, and therefore growth, into where it already happens’, rather than where it needs to happen.

And Conservative MP Nick Fletcher said it was ‘nothing short of a scandal’ that successive governments have failed to reform the Green Book, which has led to a lack of infrastructure investment ‘in the north for decades’.

‘Treasury ministers should now look at how they can completely rewrite the Green Book, so that the formula no longer rewards places that already enjoy good economic growth and high productivity with big investment projects,’ said Mr Fletcher.

‘The over-concentration on quick economic returns has only exacerbated the north/south divide and needs to be totally reworked; otherwise, the Green Book will continue to give the same answer to any infrastructure proposal in the north—“The computer says no”,’ he added.

‘Equally, the current data on regional economic progress is not sufficient. Infrastructure spending could be made fairer by integrating into a new Green Book formula, data ​that better shows regional capital investment—an improvement that honorable members have called for in the past.’

In response, Ms Badenoch rejected claims that the South has been given preferential treatment over the North.

‘That is simply not true, as anyone can see, given the unprecedented support provided,’ she told MPs.

‘We realise that these are profoundly challenging times for many people and many communities in the North. The chancellor himself is a northern MP, who is very much aware and impacted by the issues raised today.’

Photo Credit – 272447 (Pixabay)