Britain's second toll motorway is to be given the green light in an attempt to stimulate the faltering economy with capital spending.

Machinery order numbers are often taken as a guide to future capital spending plans.

In the last fiscal year, 2011-12, the government underspent by 1.6bn even on its scaled-back targets for capital spending.

It is welcome that savings in departmental spending are being diverted to capital spending programmes.

The deep capital spending cuts planned by the coalition will cause social dislocation and hundreds of thousands of job losses, the construction industry has warned.