Rail, water, energy: the big projects likely to be in Rachel Reeves’ budget

HS2 workers take photos as the boring machine Florence completes the project’s longest tunnel, which runs for 10 miles under the Chiltern Hills. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Within weeks of taking the helm at the Treasury, Rachel Reeves began shelving major infrastructure projects. The termination of a road tunnel planned to run next to Stonehenge was quickly followed by the axing of an £800m donation towards Edinburgh university’s planned supercomputer.

A more upbeat chancellor is expected to stand at the dispatch box on 30 October to promote a budget packed with initiatives to drag the economy out of the doldrums.