´óÏó´«Ã½

´óÏó´«Ã½ BLOGS - Politics Points East
« Previous | Main | Next »

Spending Review delivers highs and lows for the East

Deborah McGurran | 18:20 UK time, Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Norfolk MPs celebrate decision to dual the A11

It was cold in the chamber of the House of Commons and a cold wind blew through the country's finances as George Osborne got to his feet.

The plan is to cut £81 billion from the public finances, not £83 billion as previously billed because welfare cuts and departmental savings have already lowered the debt interest.

It's still a lot of money.

There are winners and losers. A cheer went up in the House when George Osborne announced that his East Anglian colleagues could celebrate at the news that the A11 would finally be dualled, after decades of campaigning.

All the Norfolk MPs, or as many as could get there on a busy day in Parliament, arrived for a photo call to celebrate the decision.

Keith Simpson, the Conservative MP for the new constituency of Broadland, told me:"It's because we all stuck together. No other group of MPs did as we did. There was no scattergun approach, just consistent cross-party campaigning."

The £122.3m scheme to dual the stretch of the A11 at Elvedon was a beneficiary of the Spending Review, but as Transport Secretary Philip Hammond explained, the £1 billion investment in the A14 would not be forthcoming at present.

The main arterial road from the ports in the east to the midlands will have to wait and so will the £1 billion worth of economic benefit it's claimed the development would bring.

And it looks like RAF Marham, whose position looked unclear in yesterday's Defence Review, will remain as an operational base.

It's the first clear indication of a positive outcome for the site that one in 12 jobs in West Norfolk depends on.

On the up side, the Sadler's Farm junction at the A130 and A13 is to be improved, the M25 is to be widened in places and Crossrail will go ahead, albeit with a year's delay.

On the down side, the Dartford Tunnel toll is to rise by up to £2 in the future and peak train fares will increase by inflation plus 3%.

Science funding will be ring-fenced, which is a plus for this region, and as we are at the forefront of offshore wind, so are the plans for a Green Investment Bank.

There's also £200m worth of development funding for port sites to support the offshore industry.

The coalition admits that it is cuts to welfare that are balancing the books. This is causing concern, even to members of the government.

Bob Russell, Lib Dem MP for Colchester, said: "What I am concerned about is if any families become homeless as a result of the cutting of housing benefit. What we need is more social housing - it used to be called council housing. To the credit of the coalition we are going to build more than Labour built in 13 years."

We will have to see if those words come back to haunt him.

Labour's Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, was unhappy with the review: "Killing half a million public sector jobs is just plain daft," he said, warning of a double-dip recession.

He added: "Every local council will have terrible suffering; for children, social services, the elderly. The voluntary sector is also going to suffer cuts and the vulnerable will be hit."

Local authorities are facing a cut in day-to-day funding from central government of more than a quarter by the end of this review period - that's 2014/15 - even though those who freeze council tax will get extra cash.

Comments

  • No comments to display yet.
Ìý

´óÏó´«Ã½ iD

´óÏó´«Ã½ navigation

´óÏó´«Ã½ © 2014 The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.