Government’s latest National Construction & Infrastructure Pipeline detailing public sector procurement plans for the next ten years was released in September, representing the highest level of public sector infrastructure investment ever. The pipeline plans to invest £650 billion on new infrastructure were generally welcomed by the industry and commentators.
The plans will support confidence as the industry continues to recover from Covid, but success will also demand supply chain collaboration, fair allocation of risk in contracts and an end to the feast and famine investment cycles that construction always has to contend with. Sceptics will easily find many reasons in history to doubt whether all of this will be forthcoming, and whether it will be delivered as smoothly as the government says it hopes.
Published alongside the pipeline was a document titled Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, which sets out the government’s vision to increasingly prioritise societal outcomes and use data, technology and improved delivery models on these investments. It comes after last year’s Construction Playbook that outlined the government’s hopes for best practice in public works. The playbook is being assessed by independent experts and we hope to bring readers news of that soon.
“As we recover from the pandemic, there is an opportunity to do things differently; to address the issues that have held back the construction sector for so long, and to create a more efficient, productive and sustainable industry,” Infrastructure & Projects Authority executive director Nick Smallwood was quoted saying when the Roadmap was announced. Well, the opportunity has always been there – to say nothing of the pressing need – but little seems to change and the political will to make change seems to be shorter than the soundbites that usually pass for solid infrastructure procurement plans.
The major issues facing the sector have been well documented for many years, including low levels of investment, insufficient focus on a move towards net zero emissions and not enough modernisation of skills and innovation. The government is at least making many of the right noises, mentioning modern methods of construction and the need for net zero emissions regularly.
Other governments have done so previously, but the problem is always translating fine words into action. This time there are additional problems like the soaring price of construction materials, the lack of availability of materials even at the higher prices, and a skills shortage which is biting hard. The pipeline says it will support an average of 425,000 jobs annually between 2021/22 and 2024/25 through the investment. Not much of how the skilled workforce will be provided has been said.
A lot of issues seem to be coming to a head at the same time and much has yet to be done to ensure that the UK construction industry can deliver the pipeline; always assuming that the Treasury lets the government try to. More than ever the case for listening to construction’s pleas for changes like early contractor involvement and fair risk allocation is pressing.
Nick Barrett
Editor