We are on the front foot in ensuring we have the skills needed to deliver transport infrastructure investment. We have a comprehensive skills strategy and are making excellent progress on its delivery. There is strong collaboration across the sector – with roads and rail; freight; maritime and ports and aviation (Heathrow) through the Strategic Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce. 2,000 apprenticeships were created last year and we expect up to 35,000 more in road and rail by 2022, exceeding our initial ambition.

Local authorities are free to borrow and invest in infrastructure for the benefit of local people without prior government consent, subject to assuring themselves that their borrowing costs are affordable.

Local authorities can secure contributions from developers to fund infrastructure through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and section 106 planning obligations. CIL is a flat rate charge on new development that local authorities can use to address the cumulative impact of development in their area. Section 106 planning obligations are negotiated agreements between local planning authorities and developers, and can be used to build infrastructure that will make a development acceptable in planning terms.

The government recognises the importance of infrastructure that supports housing. This is why the Autumn Budget 2017 announced a further £2.7bn for the Housing Infrastructure Fund, which supports infrastructure that unlocks housing, taking total investment in the fund to £5bn.

Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, total net housing additions in West Sussex were 15,280, of which 3,470 were accounted for by Mid Sussex. The planning system offers a number of tools to help ensure development of new homes contribute to meeting infrastructure need, including the community infrastructure levy and planning obligations where necessary to make development acceptable. Although my Department does not monitor the full range of infrastructure spending in local areas, government publishes detailed annual data of each local authority’s capital expenditure.

This is available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-capital-expenditure-receipts-and-financing.

The National Planning Policy Framework and planning guidance is clear that Local Plans should consider what infrastructure is needed to support development, and how and when it can be provided. The cumulative impact of development, and the need for infrastructure to support it, are material considerations in deciding whether development is appropriate. The weight to be given to infrastructure issues is a matter for the decision taker to assess, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case.

Local transport funding is directed at highway authority level, in this case West Sussex County Council, which includes Mid Sussex District Council. The Government is investing over £95m on local road maintenance and small scale transport schemes in the County up to 2021. In addition, West Sussex benefits from access to £238m Local Growth Funding (LGF) over the same period which has been secured by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Examples of this LGF funding include £17m towards the A3200 Burgess Hill Link Road and £13m towards a scheme to realign the A29 in Bognor Regis. The Department is also addressing missing links on the A27 by undertaking substantial improvements at Chichester, Arundel and Worthing.

On the rail network, the Department is working with stakeholders to develop options for the redevelopment of Gatwick Airport station. In addition, the Thameslink Programme is delivering significant benefits to the Brighton Main Line which serves Mid Sussex. Investment in new trains, London Bridge station and the Thameslink core means that from 2018, the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise will be able to deliver a major improvement to rail services.

In producing their Local Plan, an authority should set out their strategic priorities to deliver housing need and infrastructure in their area. These plans must be examined by an independent Inspector, appointed by the Secretary of State, who will consider the adequacy of infrastructure to support future development (based on the Council’s evidence) as part of a wider consideration into the soundness of the Plan. All the local planning authorities within West Sussex have either got an adopted Local Plan which has been found sound at examination, or a plan which is currently being examined, such as Mid Sussex.

The Local Growth Fund has made over £7 billion available to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) to spend on local priority projects which unlock housing and create infrastructure to generate economic growth. A further round of Growth Deal funding worth up to £1.8 billion is available to LEPs. The results will be announced towards the end of the year.

In the past year a number of key projects have been completed, including the opening of Smart Motorway projects on the M6 and M1, significant rail station redevelopments at Birmingham New Street and Manchester Victoria, and major local transport schemes in Nottingham and South Devon.

The government will shortly publish a new National Infrastructure Delivery Plan, setting out how it will deliver key projects and programmes over the next 5 years.

A local planning authority can already require that an infrastructure delivery plan should accompany a planning application if this is specified on a formally adopted ‘local list’ and it is reasonable to expect that the information will be material to the decision.

The government has sought to make private investment in infrastructure more attractive through a number of initiatives.

The government established the UK Guarantees Scheme (UKGS) in 2012 to help infrastructure projects access capital market finance by enabling them to issue government-backed bonds. A total of £1.7bn has been guaranteed to date, supporting 7 projects with a combined capital value of approximately £4bn.

Platforms such as the Insurers’ Infrastructure Investment Forum and the Pensions Infrastructure Platform have been set up to maximise institutional investment in infrastructure. In 2013, a group of six insurers agreed to aim to invest £25bn in UK infrastructure over 5 years – with over £5bn already invested they are on track to meet this goal.

The government’s efforts to attract private investment in infrastructure were recognised in Nabarro LLP’s Infrastructure Index, which assessed the UK as number one in the world for attracting investment in infrastructure.

The UK’s National Infrastructure Plan is underpinned by a pipeline of projects worth £411 billion to 2020 and beyond. 64% of these projects are funded solely by the private sector. Further information can be found in the government’s updated national infrastructure pipeline, which was published this month.

Foreign investment, including into our critical national infrastructure, is vital for our prosperity and this Government welcomes it. We must, though, consider carefully any risks that such investments may present, including to our national security. Prosperity and security are mutually reinforcing. The National Security Council undertakes this important task.

Project bonds are an important way of financing infrastructure from capital markets and the Government is supporting the use of project bonds for infrastructure in a number of ways.

The UK Guarantees Scheme (UKGS) helps infrastructure projects access capital market finance by enabling them to issue government-backed bonds.

The UKGS is a temporary intervention and is due to close in December 2016. The government will be engaging with industry on the future of the Scheme over the coming months.

The Government also supports the development of project bonds through the European Commission and European Investment Bank’s Project Bond Initiative. The Project Bond Credit Enhancement (PBCE) under this initiative is supporting the project bond market by improving the credit quality of senior bonds issued by project promoters through a loan or contingent facility provided by the EIB.

The Government believes that there is a powerful case for giving local business and political leaders the levers they need to create jobs and drive growth. In ‘Investing in Britain’s Future’, the Government accepted Lord Heseltine’s recommendations to devolve economic power to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) through the creation of the Local Growth Fund (LGF) with over £2 billion of budgets from skills, housing and transport for 2015-16. An area’s allocation from the LGF will be available to be spent on the priorities LEPs and their partners have determined in their strategic economic plans.

The Government allocated capital funds between programmes at spending review 2010 and spending round 2013 on the basis of a zero-based review of the

economic returns of every central Government capital programme, with investment being targeted increasingly at economic infrastructure. Once allocated between programmes, funds were moved into the appropriate departmental budgets to allow Departments to deliver those programmes.

Three guarantees and one Stand-by Facility have been signed under the UK Guarantees scheme with a total value of £1,090,800,000.

Any guarantees signed are reported to Parliament as required by the legislation, Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Act 2012, underpinning the Scheme and can also be found on the gov.uk website.

The UK Guarantees scheme did not exist in 2010-11. Following its introduction in 2012, Drax Power, the Northern Line Extension and Mersey Gateway Bridge are the projects in the National Infrastructure Plan that have benefited from the scheme. The total value of those three guarantees is £1,082,000,000.

The infrastructure pipeline published alongside the National Infrastructure Plan 2013 provides a forward looking, bottom-up assessment of overall planned and potential infrastructure investment in the UK to 2020 and beyond, and includes details of the projected value of individual investments. It includes large public and private infrastructure projects and capital programmes (generally worth £50 million or over) and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-plan-2013

The pipeline has been published annually since it was first published in 2011.

The 2011 Government Construction Strategy set a target that all publicly procured construction will require fully collaborative 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) as a minimum by 2016.

Infrastructure UK is working closely with the Government and industry groups implementing BIM on new projects. Early adopter projects include the Ministry of Justice Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute which has demonstrated an overall saving of around 20% with BIM as part of a suite of efficiency measures deployed on the design and construction of the project.

Major projects and clients are now implementing BIM on new infrastructure projects. It is still too early to draw conclusive evidence of whole life benefits. However High Speed 2 has made a specific commitment to deploy BIM and the Highways Agency are piloting BIM on the new A556 trunk road project from which evidence of benefits will be collated.

The Government published its top 40 priority infrastructure investments in its National Infrastructure Plan (December 2013). This included projected construction start and finish dates. The relevant information is contained in Annex A of the Plan, accessible here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-plan-2013

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should work with other authorities and providers to assess the quality and capacity of infrastructure for transport, water supply, wastewater and its treatment, energy (including heat), telecommunications, utilities, waste, health, social care, education, flood risk and costal change management, and its ability to meet forecast demands.

National policy must be taken into account in developing Local Plans and is a material consideration in respect of individual planning applications (irrespective of whether areas have a Local Plan in place). I hope my right hon. Friend will appreciate, however, that as planning is a matter devolved to local councils I cannot comment on the situation in Mid Sussex specifically.

Infrastructure was an issue raised as part of the BETA testing of new planning guidance and we are carefully considering the points raised before issuing the final version of the guidance.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should work with other authorities and providers to assess the quality and capacity of infrastructure for transport, water supply, wastewater and its treatment, energy (including heat), telecommunications, utilities, waste, health, social care, education, flood risk and costal change management, and its ability to meet forecast demands.

National policy must be taken into account in developing Local Plans and is a material consideration in respect of individual planning applications (irrespective of whether areas have a Local Plan in place). I hope my right hon. Friend will appreciate, however, that as planning is a matter devolved to local councils I cannot comment on the situation in Mid Sussex specifically.

Infrastructure was an issue raised as part of the BETA testing of new planning guidance and we are carefully considering the points raised before issuing the final version of the guidance.

Planning law requires that applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan for the area, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The National Planning Policy Framework states that development plans should set out the strategic priorities for the area. This should include policies to deliver the provision of infrastructure, such as transport, telecommunications, waste management,

and flood risk. Whether lack of infrastructure justifies a reason for refusing a planning application is a matter for the decision maker, having regard to the merits of the case and the legal framework.

The Government are committed to supporting the development of a strong covered bond market in the UK. The Government conducted a review of the UK's covered bond framework in April 2011 and made a number of changes to the UK regime to make it more transparent and comparable with other European frameworks. These changes come into force on 1 January 2013 and will help banks and building societies make best use of covered bond funding to support lending to the real economy, including financing infrastructure development.