Reeves examines using private sector funds to speed building of new towns

Rachel Reeves is examining how to attract funds from private investors to accelerate the government’s development of new towns in England. The chancellor has begun talks with some of the UK’s biggest banks and investment funds about building infrastructure for new towns based on public-private partnerships (PPP) – a successor to the much-criticised Tony Blair-era private finance initiative (PFI) . Treasury officials have commissioned a research paper from the British Infrastructure Taskforce, a group of leading investors, to establish how private contracts that are likely to be extensive, covering homes and amenities, can support new town developments. The move, first reported by the Telegraph, is expected to meet with opposition from many left-leaning Labour MPs who have criticised previous attempts to secure private funding for public infrastructure projects, especially hospitals and schools. Many private funders have also been sceptical of signing PPP deals since the collapse of the building company Carillion , which foundered in early 2018 after cost overruns on several hospital projects. Ministers have put forward seven sites for new towns , many of which will be built on land on the outskirts of existing cities. They include Thamesmead in Greenwich, south London, Tempsford, a new town in Bedfordshire, and urban regeneration in parts of Leeds and Manchester. …