The UK Government is to invest £320 million to build new free schools across the country, it has been announced.

Making the announcement in his Spring Budget today, 07 March, Chancellor Philip Hammond also revealed £216m will go towards maintaining schools.

Other key Budget highlights include;

• A £270m Industrial Strategy Challenge fund to support research and innovation in universities and businesses. Areas include; developing artificial intelligence and robotics that will work in extreme environments, like offshore energy, nuclear energy and space; designing and manufacturing better batteries for new electric vehicles that to improve air quality; and improving medicine manufacturing technologies.

• £690m for local transport projects, with £220m to improve congestion points on national roads. Funding will also support local projects such as improvements on the A483 corridor in Cheshire and on the Leicester Outer Ring Road.

• £300m investment to create new academic research placements including in science, technology, engineering and maths

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• £200m to build fast and reliable full-fibre broadband networks

• £16m to create a national 5G Innovation Network to trial new 5G technology

Chris Wood, Chief Executive Officer of specialist training provider Develop Training Limited (DTL), said: "The Chancellor's initiatives in the areas of training and development are to be welcomed but their eventual effect on the UK economy may however be trivial.

"Government can play a role in providing an appropriate landscape for training but long-term solutions to the UK's oft-noted skills gap; the need to promote STEM subjects more greatly in schools and universities; and the attraction of more women into engineering and technical careers, can only be delivered effectively through the direct actions and influences of industry, not simply via edicts of the State."

Eddie Tuttle, Associate Director for Policy, Research and Public Affairs at the Chartered Institute of Building, added: "We welcome the £500m increase in funding for technical education, though it is unlikely this will help reduce existing pressing skills shortages. Achieving greater parity between academic and vocational education and providing 'work-ready' employees is particularly crucial in construction. The offer within these 'T-levels' of a high quality work placement is vital; alongside further education institutes and employers, we as a professional body look forward to working with the Government to develop these qualifications.

"The importance of skilled trades and the construction industry need to be made clear: while other industries, such as manufacturing, have shed skilled workers, the construction industry maintains a third of all employment in this occupation group, and this is predicted to only grow further in the future. Skilled trades not only provide solid earnings in themselves, but provide many with an opportunity and a platform for progression within their career through to management and professional roles."

(LM)