The head of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, John Longworth, has said that politicians should stop demonising debt. He has called for infrastructure spending to be excluded from national debt targets.
He argued that infrastructure spending was an investment rather than a cost. He commented, 'Politicians are well versed in telling the electorate that we shouldn't leave today's debt for tomorrow's generation. It would be equally calamitous to leave the next generation with an economy ill-equipped to compete on the global stage.'
A BCC report called 'Bursting the Bubble' stated that current levels of investment were inadequate to deliver transport capacity, energy security and digital connectivity: Bursting the Bubble
George Osborne argues that either the deficit goes down or the country goes down. However, the current low interest rate environment offers an opportunity to improve infrastructure. If the Northern Powerhouse is to be more than just rhetoric, urgent investment is needed in transport infrastructure to replace 40-year trains made up of bus bodies welded on to bogies.
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