Failure to go further and faster over the next five years on plans for infrastructure delivery could constrain economic growth and threaten climate targets, according to the government’s official infrastructure advisers.
Noting the UK has faced several years of disruption from Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, the National Infrastructure Commission’s annual review charts a mixed picture of progress towards key infrastructure goals.
The Commission’s Infrastructure Progress Review 2024 calls for a concerted catch up programme accelerating policy implementation and delivery to ensure the country’s infrastructure is fit for the future.
In its recent National Infrastructure Assessment, the Commission calculated that public investment in infrastructure will need to reach around £30 bn a year over the coming decades (from around £20 bn a year in the past decade), alongside an uplift in private investment to around £50 bn a year.
Writing in the report’s foreword, Commission Chair Sir John Armitt bills the next five years as a “a critical period for making decisions on things that are of immediate concern to the public – the three Ps of prices, potholes and pollution”.
