ICE calls for infrastructure spending to drive growth

 It is calling for more detailed action to follow up on the publication of the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) last year.

The NIP set out how infrastructure could be a key driver of competitiveness and economic growth, by increasing private and public sector productivity. ICE says there have been significant steps towards achieving this, including the proposal for a Green Investment Bank, the creation of Infrastructure UK (IUK) within the Treasury and the formation of a group of ministers to ensure a smooth pipeline of projects and identify potential investment blockages. It also welcomes the IUK Infrastructure Costs Review into the costs of construction in the UK, which identified weakness in the UK’s approach in several areas that if addressed could lower delivery costs and unlock benefits of £2-3bn a year.

However the civil engineers want government to “use the budget to translate its policies into detailed actions that pave the way for infrastructure to become the economic driver it promises”.

They want more detail on the structure of the Green Investment Bank, which ICE believes should not be downgraded to a fund. ICE also wants a plan for implementing the actions set out in the Infrastructure Costs Review and the publication of a second, more detailed edition of the NIP setting out long-term plans.

ICE director general Tom Foulkessaid: “Infrastructure forms a central plank of any strategy for growth in both the short and long term. Every £1 of investment in construction activity generates £2.84 of economic activity and 92p of every pound spent on construction is retained in the UK helping to boost the fragile recovery. New and upgraded infrastructure will also be central to longer term goals of improving the security of the UK’s energy supply and the transition to a low carbon economy.

“But government must get started on the delivery and implementation of its plans in order to make real progress and create a political, regulatory and commercial environment that is conducive to high levels of private investment in infrastructure.

“This will mark the end of the ‘stop/start’ approach to infrastructure development – an approach which in previous decades has led to under investment in economic infrastructure, undermined skills development and innovation in the infrastructure supply chain, fuelled periodic bouts of construction inflation and seriously undermined investor confidence.”

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