Chancellor urged to include infrastructure in his "further measures" after rate cut

Pressure is being piled on to the Chancellor to include additional infrastructure spending in his "further measures" to follow the Bank of England's cutting of interest rates to a new historic low.

Commentators in The Telegraph, Bloomberg and The Guardian all said that the Bank of England's measures, including further quantitative easing, would need to be followed by further stimulus as the economy faces a further recession. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph said "we are all Keynesians now," as he urged "shovel-ready projects" that can act "as counter-cyclical stimulus through the downturn".

A Bloomberg comment demanded that "the Chancellor fulfil his promise to 'reset' an economic policy that has centered on austerity," pointing out that other major economies have supported monetary policy with "fiscal policy muscle," including a $273bn package in Japan that includes a new high-speed rail line, and an easing of deficit reduction to fund a $95bn infrastructure spending boost in Canada.

Lastly The Guardian said that to make the economy "more resilient" it would prefer a boost for infrastructure over the VAT cut that the shadow Chancellor had called for whilst organisations such as the British Chambers of Commerce made the point that infrastructure would help to raise productivity as Theresa May chaired the first Economy and Industrial strategy committee of the Cabinet to agree how to do this.