The chancellor, George Osborne, is to announce a £30bn, 10-year investment programme in Britain's infrastructure, to try to get the economy moving. Most of the money is expected to come from the big pension funds, but £5bn will be paid for by a combination of measures including further cuts to the present spending round and by tackling tax avoidance.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told Today presenter Evan Davis that the government will not borrow more to fund the scheme but will find the cash in departmental underspends and projects that have been delayed.

"We're talking about £5bn additional over this parliament for infrastructure," he said.

"That is a significant sum of money but in the context of a government that is spending nearly £3tr over that period, it's not at size of money that you would expect to be difficult to find both from underspends and also from other decisions we're making. "

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.