Infrastructure Strategy Published
The Government has published its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy setting out a long-term plan for £725 billion of investment in the country’s infrastructure over the next decade. Promising an end to ‘erratic decisions, false promises and squeezed capital investment’, the strategy brings together in one place for the first time economic, social and housing infrastructure, with the aim of ensuring a more joined-up approach and increasing private investment. It commits to introducing a ‘new approach’ to how projects are prioritised, planned for and delivered, as part of providing the certainty businesses need to invest.
The Government has put better infrastructure at the heart of its plans for economic growth, and the £725 billon of funding will ensure that infrastructure capital spending continues to grow at least in line with inflation after the current Spending Review period. It will also support the delivery of the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, published earlier this week, unlocking the potential of the highest-growth sectors.
The strategy will be overseen by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which has been established to integrate infrastructure policy, strategy and delivery in the centre of Government. A digital Infrastructure Pipeline will be published in July, providing data on timelines, size, funding status, location and procurement routes for projects with a total cost of £25 million or above for economic infrastructure and £15 million or above for social infrastructure. The pipeline will be expanded over time to include greater granularity, with updates at least every six months to begin with. The strategy document can be viewed here.
