10 Year Infrastructure Strategy – A Growth Mission
The 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy is core to delivering the government’s growth mission to boost living standards in every part of the UK, by creating and connecting people to good jobs, supporting new housing and neighbourhoods, ensuring people can depend on vital public services and providing resilience in response to a changing world.
Infrastructure investment has been too erratic and too low in the UK, hampering productivity and wages and making delivery slow and costly. Across policy and delivery, there has been insufficient coordination, across sectors and between government and industry. Delivering this requires a new approach.
In the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, the government is doing things differently to fix the failures of the past, prioritising long-term outcomes over short-term announcements, providing the certainty and stability needed to attract investment, boosting British supply chains and jobs, and taking a joined-up view to improve planning and delivery across all types of infrastructure.
COMMENTS:
“It is clear that the Infrastructure Plan is taking the issue of investment in road and other transport infrastructure very seriously and is tacitly acknowledging that the aim of 1.5 million new homes simply won’t be achieved unless the Treasury acknowledges the need to fund projects which local councils and developers simply cannot afford. This is an issue which has, and still is, holding up a number of Local Plan examinations and major development proposals.
“There is also a clear message to local authorities about the need to plan properly for social infrastructure. This gets its own section in the Infrastructure Plan, demonstrating the importance of providing social infrastructure with Local and Strategic planning documents”.
Kelly Boorman, National Head of Construction at RSM UK
“Delays to planning reform, labour shortages and uncertainty over pipelines have been key challenges for the construction industry, with mandatory housing targets adding another layer of pressure. The government’s pledge to catalyse investment in construction skills and technology to increase productivity is a step in the right direction, as on-site labour productivity and workforce deficits have been a major barrier to achieving housing targets, as outlined in RSM’s Real Estate 360 survey.
“The Infrastructure Pipeline will give businesses more visibility on future projects in the next 10 years, enabling them to plan, forecast, and identify the right people with the right skillsets to deliver. Given the pipeline has been designed based on supply chain input, this should stop previous tensions from continuing and foster much-needed collaboration in the industry. The added focus on investment in new technologies will also attract new people with different skillsets to the industry, creating new job opportunities and bringing new ways of thinking towards building.”
She added: “However, the strategy reveals the government is taking a spatial approach to planning infrastructure, which aside from housing, will present new opportunities for construction businesses across education, health and transport. Previously, the industry has struggled with forecasting and committing to projects due to mobilisation delays, so the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), will play a key role in reforming public procurement, assessing viability of contracts, and maximising growth opportunities. It’s therefore critical that NISTA deploys the right expertise, removes barriers and streamlines processes to ensure the successful delivery of major contracts.”
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark
“With the UK Government setting itself an ambitious target of constructing 1.5 million new homes in England, any potential measures to help this ambition become a reality are likely to be welcome news for stakeholders. Propertymark has always stated that overly complicated planning systems can hinder much-needed development.
“However, it is vital that other factors slowing down housebuilding in England are tackled head on, such as ensuring a skilled workforce and a robust supply chain are fully in place.
“There must also be an infrastructure-first approach and a sensible degree of local flexibility regarding planning decisions, which is why it is positive to see the Industrial Strategy refer to the need to improve the country’s infrastructure and it mentioned the UK Government’s aim to establish a new National Housing Bank that will help develop financial support to mayors and local leaders responsible for delivering local housing.”
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