Following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review earlier today, Coastal West Sussex Partnership Chairman Henry Powell has commented on what the Chancellor’s infrastructure plans mean for West Sussex:

Today’s spending review by the Chancellor outlined the extremely challenging economic situation the nation finds itself in.

The Coastal West Sussex Partnership welcomes the focus on infrastructure spending and the idea of a new infrastructure bank for the UK, however questions the wisdom of headquartering it in the north of England.

In the south east of England, our roads must endure traffic to and from major ports such as Dover, airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow, and of course, London. However, West Sussex has suffered from historic under investment and the people and businesses in the area have suffered. Small victories have been won on local issues however the infrastructure in southern counties like Sussex is set to buckle when we return to pre-covid levels of transit.

The Chancellor has chosen to pander to northern counties with the promise of increased spending and a new hub, when it is in the national interest to spend this money in the south to enable smooth trade and competitiveness with international ports and airports. If this government really wants to level up, it needs to consider the return-on-investment of spending in the south.