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The Importance of the Infrastructure Forums
On Thursday, 24th May 2007, Mark Prisk, MP - Shadow Minister for Business and Enterprise hosted a House of Commons Dinner - Strategic Government Influence
Andrew McNaughton, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering and Chairman, Infrastructure Forum, Constructing Excellence said:
“Infrastructure provides the fabric for the wider Construction Industry to connect operate and perform. It’s the link between housing health and communities. We need to remember that infrastructure allows our doctors to heal, our teachers to teach and our businesses to invest. The importance of the sector is often forgotten yet it provides society with the ability to communicate, interact and develop. If the infrastructure fails, local communities and ultimately the nation is impacted. Government is starting to fully understand the opportunity they have through a world class infrastructure and I’m pleased the Infrastructure Forum is playing a key role in this discussion.”
Key topics of Discussion
The discussion covered a wide range of issues affecting the Civil Engineering Industry and the Infrastructure Sector in particular. These included:-
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The availability of resources
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Skills, training and attracting people into the industry
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Procurement and the interaction of the industry and public sector clients
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Innovation in the industry and particularly blockages for organisations
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In addition, the potential structure of the government and changes to departmental structures were discussed.
The Infrastructure Forum Message Provided to the Discussion
The key theme through all the topics discussed was the principle of the need for a long term approach to the planning of the infrastructure. There is a need for central and local government to understand and act on the fact that the provision of infrastructure is a legacy for the nation and due to the longevity of the planning process, a strategic approach is required. A process that is interrupted by fluctuating funding considerations or delayed through a lack of clear decision making and direction poses a real risk to the economic growth of the nation. This is exacerbated by the impact of resource constraints in the industry. Without a long term view of infrastructure planning, there is the potential for the industry to become capacity constrained. This will result in further delay to the delivery of key assets that support national and regional development. Examples of delays in the transport programme and particularly with developing a strategy for energy provision were used as examples.
The meeting coincided with the release of the Energy White Paper and hence the opportunity was taken to emphasise the fact that a potential crisis is pending for energy provision. A theme developed through the discussion of “the clock is ticking” for energy provision in the UK.
Actions from the meeting
There was a receptive environment to the issues raised and the theme of the clock ticking was taken up enthusiastically. A proposal was developed for a workshop, sponsored by the host, to involve key representatives from the infrastructure sector. It is proposed that the workshop will use a series of energy projects as a theme to illustrate the time needed to plan and deliver key infrastructure assets to the nation. This will also provide an opportunity for the infrastructure community to demonstrate the capability and capacity to deliver.
Key message back to the Infrastructure Forum
The work from the Working Group on long term planning provided a valuable pre-meeting briefing from a broad perspective. The views were not only acknowledged, but recognised as key information in developing a long term approach to infrastructure planning.
There is clear opportunity for members of the forum to take part in a workshop prior to the government summer recess to press this theme further. This is an excellent example of how the IF can have an influence and benefit its members.
For more information on the Infrastructure Forum, please contact:
Anna Russell, Project Administrator, Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment
Tel: 0118 918 1400 / 0870 922 0034
Fax: 0118 975 0404
Eml: Anna.Russell@constructingexcellence.org.uk
Web: http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk
P O Box 2874, London Road, Reading RG1 5UQ
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