Major infrastructure projects are deeply interwoven into the identity of modern Britain. However, these projects suffer from a public reputation, and too often a reality, of being beset by delays and overspending, resulting in wavering commitment and lack of public and political support.
Transforming Infrastructure Delivery: Priorities for UK Government brings together views from industry insiders and aims to be the starting gun for government and industry to come together. The report begins to explore what must be done by both industry and government to dramatically improve the pace of delivery, productivity, and sustainability of megaprojects.
Our report identifies five challenges – and the associated asks of both government and industry – to make meaningful progress towards their solutions.
- Approvals: How can the UK accelerate the approval process while still building robust business cases with strong community engagement?
- Procurement: How can procurement approaches retain checks and balances to ensure the best value for public money, but be less mechanistic in their application and allow for greater creativity?
- Skills: What do major projects and surrounding industries need to do to bring in new skills to the sector?
- Innovation: What must government and industry do to drive innovation in projects?
- Net Zero: How can industry and government better work together to decarbonize infrastructure?
With case studies from Liberty Charge, Lower Thames Crossing, and Future Port Talbot, we see there are green shoots of world-leading projects in the UK today. If industry and government act now, the sector can regenerate its image and be the key to unlocking a high-growth, world-leading, net-zero Britain via truly world-class delivery.
Ultimately, this report aims to start a process of industry and government collaboration to understand, identify, and jointly resolve the barriers to cleaner, faster, and more cost-effective infrastructure delivery. As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated, brilliant things can happen in a time of crisis. What was considered impossible can become possible. Now, more than ever, that crisis mindset is needed to fully unlock the potential of one of the UK’s most important sectors.
If you would like to find out more about the report or discuss, please reach out to Jonathan Roe.
In Spring 2023 we will be releasing the biennial Ankura Infrastructure Perspectives report, a survey of the leaders behind some of the UK’s largest and most important infrastructure programs to understand their views on the state of the sector, the challenges it faces, and their perspectives on its future. Register here to be notified of its release.
© Copyright 2022. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
