Sebastian Payne

George Osborne: ‘I’m trying to shake the inertia of this country’

George Osborne is the man who wants to build and plan. On the Today programme, the Chancellor explained he was creating a National Infrastructure Commission, headed up by former Labour peer Andrew Adonis, because ‘Britain is pretty rubbish at making big decision on infrastructure’:

‘I’m trying to shake the inertia of this country and say we have got to plan and build for the future and I think the best way to do that is to have an independent body outside the party political fight, trying to build a national consensus, telling us in a calm and expert way what the country needs for its future and then I want to go ahead and building it and make sure we’re providing the jobs and security for working people not just in this generation but the next.’

The Chancellor cited the Howard Davies’ commission on airport expansion as an example of Britain’s inability to build things, pointing out that the decision has been mulled around for 40+ years. Interestingly, Osborne said the Airport Commissions’ report laid out the options for an expansion at Heathrow or Gatwick — which is true, but Davies’ main recommendation was a third runway at Heathrow:

‘We now have an independent report which has forced the choice on the government — made it very clear what the options are, ruled out all sorts of other options that were out there and said here, if you want to build a runway — which by the way you need to — you can either put one at Heathrow or you can put one at Gatwick and now you decide.’

This will give hope to anti-Heathrow campaigners (not least Zac Goldsmith), suggesting that the government is mulling both options equally. The timetable remains the same: Osborne said that a decision on which option the government is backing will be taken before Christmas but it’s got to be made ‘in a proper way.’

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