Today's entry reports on the second reading of the
Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill.
The Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill had its second
reading (the debate on the main principles of the Bill) in the
House of Commons on Monday. The Bill is the one that is to be
rushed through to allow up to £50bn of guarantees to be given
to infrastructure projects that are poised to go ahead but
can't quite get all the necessary financial backing.
First, a brief analysis of the bill and then what happened on
Monday.
The Bill
The bill can be found
here. It's a short bill - just four clauses, and the meat
of it is just the first. Clause 2 puts the limit of
expenditure at £50bn, clause 3 requires a report to be made
of what the government did with the money in each year up to 31
March, and clause 4 is the standard final clause about the name of
the Act, its extent, etc. (more on that in a moment). In case
you were wondering why parts of the bill are in
