The government has axed £1.9bn of projects, and suspended a further £8.5bn pending the autumn spending review in a wholesale blitz on Labour pledges.
Projects axed include the £450m North Tees and Hartlepool hospital and the £25m Stonehenge visitor centre.
Suspended schemes include the £1.1bn A14 road, the £94m Birmingham magistrates court, the £50m Leeds Hold Park wellbeing centre, the £23m Kent Thameside strategic transport programme and the £12m Sheffield retail quarter. A £45m grant for a national film centre in London has been scrapped.
The government made clear that the cuts and suspensions in public sector projects was just a foretaste of what was to come. Billions of pounds worth of new and refurbished schools and hospitals are also under threat with the entire Building Schools for the Future programme under scrutiny.
However, the £454m Royal Liverpool rebuild, a £231m rebuild at St Helier, in Surrey, and a £90m redevelopment of the Royal National Orthopaedic have got the go-ahead. All other major hospital developments will be reviewed in time for the autumn spending round. New prisons could also be cancelled or substantially scaled back.
18/06/10 Financial Times 2
Times 1, 8-9
Daily Telegraph 6
Guardian 1, 4
Independent 6
