Boris Johnson is set to use a speech on Tuesday to announce a taskforce with the purpose of accelerating major building projects.
Boris Johnson will set out his vision for the country’s post-Covid renaissance in an address to the nation on Tuesday.
He will use the speech to launch a special taskforce, with the aim of accelerating the building of schools, hospitals, roads and even prisons.
Downing Street said the speed at which NHS Nightingale hospitals were created inspired Mr Johnson to set up the new infrastructure delivery group, which will be chaired by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
The taskforce will be told that there are “now no excuses for delays” to building programmes, after the country demonstrated it can move at pace during a national emergency.
The body will sift through the blueprints of major infrastructure projects in the pipeline and look to iron out any inefficiencies which could hold-up their delivery and stall the country in getting back on track.
Known as “Project Speed” among officials, the group will be tasked with assessing building programmes in every city, town and village to ensure communities across the country can benefit more quickly from the improvements that infrastructure brings, Government sources said.
“The coronavirus response has shown that it doesn’t have to take years to get essential projects off the ground – the Nightingale hospitals and ventilator challenge were up and running in a matter of weeks,” a Number 10 spokesman said.
“As we recover from the pandemic we must apply that same urgency to the major projects at the foundations of this country and get them done right, to truly level up opportunity across the UK.
“There’s now no excuse for delays. Infrastructure has the power to rebuild and repair our country – and we will do it better, faster and more strategically than before.”
