Did the UK Spring Budget give enough focus on cities & infrastructure?

Perhaps it all depends on your time horizon - indifferent in the short term but certainly promising for the medium to long term. Here's why:

The Budget has provided further impetus to nurturing the UK’s talent, bright ideas and technologies - and there is great potential to harness this to improve our infrastructure and cities of the future. For example through the intended support for autonomous vehicles, battery technologies, robotics for energy infrastructure as well as 1,000 PhD’s in STEM subjects and the new T-Level technical qualifications. The various devolution announcements could also provide foundations for more integrated thinking on cities and infrastructure in the future, not least the Midlands Engine strategy and piloting a new approach to funding infrastructure in London.

However, the Budget kept the Government’s powder dry on strategic infrastructure with no new major investment decisions. Announcements on new arteries to transform our transport and energy infrastructure networks in the North, Midlands, London and elsewhere will have to wait for another day. Tackling localised road hotspots and congestion relief in towns and cities could be supported. In parallel a new and detailed plan to tackle the UK’s poor air quality is due in the coming months and this will clearly need to dovetail well with the plans for road infrastructure improvements.