Well-known economist Jim O鈥橬eill becomes new commercial secretary to the Treasury
Lord Deighton has been replaced as commercial secretary to the Treasury by economist Jim O鈥橬eill, in the final appointment of David Cameron鈥檚 government reshuffle.
The Treasury commercial secretary is known informally as the government鈥檚 鈥榠nfrastructure tsar鈥�, with responsibility for overseeing infrastructure projects.
Lord Deighton (pictured) had held the position since January 2013. He previously served as chief executive of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog), and is credited with contributing to the success of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. At the time of his appointment Deighton commented that it was 鈥渢he only job I would have considered leaving Goldman Sachs for.鈥�
His replacement, O鈥橬eill, is also a former Goldman Sachs boss and the economist credited with creating the term 鈥淏RICs鈥� to describe the emerging market powerhouse economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Richard Threfall, head of construction at KPMG, commented that Deighton did 鈥渁 very good job in a difficult role鈥�, achieving more than what hit the headlines and bringing 鈥渃onsiderable focus to the government about needing to rally round important projects.鈥� Threfall said O鈥橬eill was known as an 鈥渁rdent evanglist for devloution鈥� and his appointment to the role was 鈥済reat news鈥�.
Long known in the financial industry O鈥橬eill has been appointed by George Osborne to 鈥渉elp make devolution and the Northern Powerhouse happen鈥�. His will also be charged with helping to get private sector investment into UK infrastructure, something the coalition government struggled with.
However, the new minister has previously expressed scepticism about HS2, the government鈥檚 costly high-speed rail link, telling a newspaper he thought all it will do is get people to London quicker.
Noble Francis, economist at the Construction Products Association, said: 鈥淲e welcome the new commercial secretary to the Treasury, Jim O鈥橬eill, someone with considerable business experience and look forward to working with him.
鈥淲e also thank his predecessor Lord Deighton for all his work, particularly on taking the National Infrastructure Plan and turning it into something tangible where we are now seeing real delivery of major infrastructure projects on the ground.鈥�
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