Quasi Quarteng
The publication of the government’s infrastructure pipeline has been set back by months due to political turmoil in the wake of September’s ill-fated mini-budget.
The latest national infrastructure and construction pipeline was scheduled for release in November, detailing the projects up for grabs across the sector over the next decade. Produced by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), it is part of a government commitment to transparency regarding the work available to companies.
The latest release was due to update the previous version issued last September, which projected £650bn of private and public investment for UK infrastructure projects over a decade.
But big political personnel changes and last month’s autumn budget set the publication back, IPA director of infrastructure, enterprise and growth, Jon Loveday, told the CN Transforming Construction conference this week.
He referenced the multiple changes of chancellor and prime minister this year, which began with former chancellor Rishi Sunak leaving prime minister Boris Johnson’s government in July, to be replaced by Nadhim Zahawi, and then Kwasi Kwartengwho held the post during much of Liz Truss’ short-lived premiership. Kwarteng departed in the wake of his badly received mini-budget and was replaced by Jeremy Hunt, who scrapped many of Kwarteng’s financial plans prior to Sunak replacing Truss as PM in October.
“We had this minor fiscal event a few weeks ago so we had to pause our publication [of the pipeline],” Loveday said. “We will be publishing that probably in January, and it will be needing a little refresh.”
The pipeline’s publication could reduce fears over the amount of work made available to the construction sector in the next few years. Inflation and high energy prices have long been hitting revenues and project budgets, prompting concerns in the industry that there could be a slowdown in work.
Ministers had also raised speculation ahead of the autumn statement that major projects such as parts of HS2 and Sizewell C could be scrapped. Hunt ultimately recommitted the government to its programmes, while announcing capital expenditure would reduce in real terms from 2025 onward.
The IPA is a government-owned body designed to be a “centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects”.
Loveday stressed the importance for the sector of knowing what is coming up in future, especially in the current economic climate. “The biggest challenge we have with inflation is the productivity one, and that’s what we are really grappling with,” he said. “When you have long-term thinking, you might not know how many schools we are going to build every single year, but you know we are going to build at least 50 or 200, whatever it is going to be.
“You can start to gear up the supply chain – what we have to do in the centre is make sure the supply chain is the right size.”
Loveday conceded that the sector was still not being helped to be as productive as it could be. “We would like to see more steady, long-term contracts to really allow organisations to invest and to really hit that sweet spot for productivity,” he added.
