Andy Burnham has discussed with a leading economist how he might boost infrastructure spending without breaking Labour’s fiscal rules and spooking the markets, as the Greater Manchester mayor plots his move on Downing Street.
Lord Jim O’Neill, former Treasury minister and ex-Goldman Sachs chief economist, has urged Burnham to be ambitious within the government’s current fiscal rules, creating space to borrow more for projects that stimulate growth.
O’Neill has proposed that an independent body should assess new rail, road and energy projects to give the markets confidence that extra borrowing would only be used to back projects with “high positive economic multipliers”.