Jeremy Corbyn has used his first speech to a CBI conference to commit a Labour government to infrastructure investment funded by increases in corporation tax.
The Labour leader said a national investment bank would be at “the centre of a plan to rebuild and transform Britain”. This, he said, would “deliver long-term investment in our underfunded infrastructure”. With the CBI lobbying the government for greater investment, he said there was “common ground” between Labour and business.
“It will mean some increases in corporation tax but I see it as a sound investment,” he told delegates.
Committing Labour to devolution, he urged the government to follow investment in HS2 with investment in improved transport links across the north of England.
And he said housing would be at the heart of the party’s infrastructure plans. “Labour would fund a dramatic increase in number of affordable homes to rent and buy by local authorities and the private sector,” he said.
Earlier at the conference, prime minister Theresa May said that chancellor Philip Hammond would use Wednesday’s Autumn Statement to do more to “boost Britain’s long-term economic success, setting out how we will take the big decisions we need to invest in our nation’s infrastructure so we can get the country – and business – moving.”
• To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@estatesgazette.com or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
