Govt to sell 40% Eurostar stake

Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT union, has criticised the Government's decision to sell its stake in Eurostar:

Read: Shape of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement is beginning to emerge

Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander has confirmed that the long-planned upgrade to the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon will be funded by the Government, rather than a toll.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast he said there would be "no delay to the delivery of that project," which is due to start in 2016.

Read: Campaigners' concern over A14 funding announcement

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the £25 billion investment from insurance companies into British infrastructure projects was a "massive vote of confidence".

Speaking at the construction site of National Grid's London Power Tunnels, Mr Alexander said the investment was "more evidence we are rebuilding Britain."

Major British insurers plan to invest £25 billion into infrastructure projects over the next five years, the government said.

Boosting private-sector infrastructure investment is a priority for the government.

The Government will today raise the amount it expects to be invested in infrastructure projects in the UK from £309 billion last year to more than £375 billion.

Almost 300 of the 646 projects and programmes are already under construction.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander is expected to announce:

• The building of the UK's first toll road in a decade is to be scrapped. The A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon will not introduce a fee for use after the improvement scheme, due to start in 2016, is completed.
• The railway station at Gatwick Airport will receive £50 million for redevelopment.

• A Government guarantee could support finance for the development of a new nuclear power station at Wylfa on Anglesey.
• The tube's Northern Line £1 billion extension to Battersea in south west London will be guaranteed.

• Improvements to the A50 around Uttoxeter in Staffordshire will start no later than 2015/16.
• A £10 million competitive fund to open in early 2014 to test ways to deliver superfast broadband to remote areas of the UK.

The Government is expected to announce plans to sell its 40% stake in the cross-channel Eurostar as part of a target to raise £20 billion through the privatisation of financial and corporate assets by 2020.

Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the treasury, will announce the Eurostar sale as part of a wider £375 billion investment programme to 2030 and beyond, called the new national infrastructure plan (NIP).

Last month Eurostar revealed it had seen an increase in revenues and passenger numbers compared with last summer.

Sales revenue for the period July-September 2013 reached £207 million - a 10% increase on the same period last year - and passenger numbers in summer 2013 rose 5% to 2.7 million.