Text a: Politics

Sovereign wealth funds to be allowed to lease motorways in England, says prime minister David Cameron will clear the way for a multibillion-pound semi-privatisation of trunk roads and motorways as he announces plans to allow sovereign wealth funds from countries such as China to lease roads in England.

Just 48 hours before the budget, the prime minister will give a speech calling for radical action to improve Britain's infrastructure, which is falling behind those of key competitors in Europe.

In his most eye-catching proposal, Cameron will announce that the Treasury and Department for Transport are to carry out a feasibility study looking at using private-sector funds to improve and maintain trunk roads and motorways.

[…] The bankers NM Rothschild suggested in a report in 2010 that privatising the road network could raise £100bn. Government sources said the scheme proposed by Cameron would raise far less because he plans to lease out trunk roads and motorways, rather than embarking on a full-scale sell-off, as NM Rothschild suggested.

The Cameron scheme would see a regulator for roads established along the lines of Ofwat, which oversees water and sewerage providers. Government sources were joking that they would have to think of a better name than Ofroad.

Osborne confirmed on Sunday that the main points of the budget were agreed by the "quad" group of ministers – the chancellor, the prime minister, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander – last Monday. It is understood that the chancellor will announce the scrapping of the 50p top rate of tax for people earning above £150,000. But he will balance that by saying that he hopes to ease the burden of low-income earners by moving more rapidly to raise the tax allowance to £10,000. This target, which was a key Lib Dem pledge in its manifesto for the last general election, was meant to have been reached by April 2015. It is understood that the chancellor now hopes to achieve this a year early. […]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/mar/19/david-cameron-sell-off-roads (19 March 2012)

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