The Treasury is reported to be investigating how to attract private finance to bring down the cost of the UK government’s largest planned infrastructure project, the £9 billion Lower Thames Crossing.

The Guardian reports Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s department is considering handing over the income from tolls to a private consortium in return for a cash injection that would reduce the cost to the public purse.

It understands officials are considering a scheme allowing investors into the bidding process to finance some or all of the scheme in return for a lease that could run for 125 years – or even indefinitely – to recoup the outlay.

But it says Ms Reeves has rejected reviving the private finance initiative which was used by the Blair government to pay for new schools and hospitals, typically over 30 years, but became associated with costly and inflexible contracts.

(Picture – National Highways)