UK to launch 23 billion pounds fund to boost infrastructure

By David Milliken and Simon Jessop LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday he would launch a fund to invest 23 billion pounds in rail, telecoms and housing infrastructure over the next five years. The National Productivity Investment Fund would be spent on infrastructure and research and development, the chancellor said in his first Autumn Statement address to parliament, including on science and technology. "Economically productive infrastructure directly