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PM Johnson demands Britain "Build, build, build" to beat COVID-19 slump


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PM Johnson demands Britain "Build, build, build" to beat COVID-19 slump

By William James

 

2020-06-30T084656Z_1_LYNXMPEG5T0KY_RTROPTP_4_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRITAIN-JOHNSON-OBESITY.JPG

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, June 16, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to shake Britain's economy out of its coronavirus-induced crisis on Tuesday, by fast-tracking infrastructure investment and slashing property planning rules.

 

As Britain emerges from lockdown, Johnson is looking to move past criticism of his government's handling of the pandemic with a plan to repair the economic damage and reshape the country.

 

"We cannot continue simply to be prisoners of the crisis," Johnson said. "We must work fast because we've already seen the vertiginous drop in GDP."

 

His message, delivered at a college in the central English town of Dudley, was overshadowed by the announcement of a new lockdown in Leicester, just 50 miles away, where COVID-19 infections are surging.

 

Nevertheless, with an exhortation to "build, build, build", Johnson announced plans to speed up government infrastructure spending and "scythe through red tape" around planning to make property development easier.

 

Promising not to cut spending, compared his plan to former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" programme of the 1930s, which included job-creating public work projects to help the United States recover from the Great Depression.

 

"I'm conscious ... that it sounds like a prodigious amount of government intervention, sounds like a new deal... If that is so, then that is how it's meant to sound," Johnson said.

 

Tuesday's headline spending announcement of 5 billion pounds ($6.13 billion), announced before the speech, amounts to around 5 percent of gross public sector investment last year. Most had already been announced and is only being spent sooner than planned.

 

Britain's recent history also shows that big infrastructure projects are difficult to deliver.

 

A new underground train line in central London is over budget and late, as is a north-south high speed rail link. After decades of discussing airport expansion at London Heathrow, the project remains mired in legal challenges.

 

The 5 billion pounds of accelerated investment will be made up of projects including hospitals, schools and roads.

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-30
 
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4 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

After decades of discussing airport expansion at London Heathrow, the project remains mired in legal challenges.

They need to knock down Heathrow and completely rebuilt it , its all old a decrepit and Third division/Third World  compared to other World modern airports

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He is promising to build so that the young can have the same opportunities to own a home that the older generation had when Thatcher gave all the houses away for pittance. 

Cant argue with that. 
 

It’s the younger generation have suffered the most from this COVID lockdown and will continue to do so for years, albeit the ones who are least likely to suffer from the disease. 

 

 

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50 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

He is promising to build so that the young can have the same opportunities to own a home that the older generation had when Thatcher gave all the houses away for pittance. 

Cant argue with that. 
 

 

Can argue with that because people who get given council houses will never own those houses.............unless the Government decides to sell them those houses...........cheaply , like Thatcher did

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1 hour ago, Kadilo said:

 

It’s the younger generation have suffered the most from this COVID lockdown and will continue to do so for years, albeit the ones who are least likely to suffer from the disease. 

 

 

How do you work that one out? Is it because they have been enjoying subsidised furlough but can't get out shopping and clubbing to spend the money they have saved?

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17 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

Can argue with that because people who get given council houses will never own those houses.............unless the Government decides to sell them those houses...........cheaply , like Thatcher did

the right to buy still exists in the uk for council houses and some rights where housing associations have taken over property from the council

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7 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

Because a lot them will lose their jobs that's why.

So the young are the only ones who will lose their jobs?

"We'll keep all the older ones working because they're more expensive and would find it more difficult to be reemployed again??????"

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16 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

All the pubs in Rayleigh apart from Wetherspoons are table bookings only, what about Southend?

Not sure mate tbh. I’m not around there at the moment. Prob the same I would guess 

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