The chancellor's move to steal one of Labour's best ideas - that of a National Infrastructure Commission to help get infrastructure projects planned and prioritised more quickly-was a masterclass in Osborne tactics contained within a substantial speech that roused the party faithful. By shamelessly taking on the plan which Sir John Armitt had drawn up for former shadow chancellor Ed Balls before the election, Osborne both addressed a major flaw in the government's infrastructure strategy and neutered Labour attacks on the subject. It will be doubly galling for Labour that he has lured the party's highly regarded, if technocratic, former transport secretary, Lord Adonis, to run the commission. But while Osborne's infrastructure announcement was the big news of the week for construction, it also contained news on devolution, on the acceleration of public land sales, on local authority pension funds, and a reiteration of his resolve to build more homes and accelerate brownf ield land development.
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