Key new announcements in the Plan include:
- £15bn investment in the UK's strategic road network;
- £2.3bn of flood defence investment;
- £38bn of national rail network investment;
- Scoping for a potential £1bn power-generating tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay;
- A co-operation agreement with Toshiba, GDF Suez and NuGen with the aim of issuing a statement of intent to provide a guarantee to assist the financing of a new nuclear power station in Moorside, Cumbria; and
- Targeted investment in science, ports, aviation, waste and social infrastructure.
The Government's long-awaited announcement of the second proposed garden city site, following the announcement earlier this year of an initial 15,000-home garden city at Ebbsfleet, Kent, was also made this week. It was announced that an initial 13,000 homes will be sited at a new garden city in Bicester, Oxfordshire, which is also the site of a new eco-town.
The National Infrastructure Plan also outlined several planned reforms to the planning regime. These include proposals for the "streamlining and updating" of the compulsory purchase regime, proposals of which will be issued for consultation at the time of next year's Budget, and steps to speed up section 106 agreements, "including revised guidance, consulting on a faster process for reaching agreement, and considering how timescales for agreement could be introduced, and improving transparency on the use of section 106 funds".
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