The government is selling off its 40 per cent share of the Eurostar service.

It will be sold as part of a wider plan to privatise around £20 billion in various infrastructure assets by 2020. This comes just after £25 billion in investments over the next five years was announced for various projects in the UK.

Chief secretary for the Treasury Danny Alexander is expected to confirm today (December 4th) the planned investments have risen to £379 billion, from £307 billion last year.

He will state this move supports the £100 billion in public investment announced in this year's Spending Round, to be spread across the next seven years.

The news has been met with scepticism so far. Speaking about the results, chief policy director for the Confederation of British Industry said "the devil will be in the detail on timelines and delivery".

Shadow chief secretary Chris Leslie stated the government's previous performance in improving infrastructure was a "complete failure", citing figures from the Office for National Statistics which state infrastructure work as a whole, fell 3.6 per cent this year, and by ten per cent in 2012.