Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed he will provide guarantees of £40bn for loans for infrastructure projects as a further incentive to encourage pension schemes to finance them.

In his Autumn statement, Osborne said the government would also directly invest an additional £5bn to get projects off the ground. Projects worth £10bn have already qualified for loan guarantees. A further £10bn has been guaranteed for housing projects, lifting annual infrastructure spending to £33bn, according to Osborne.