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2016 preview: WYG's Paul Hamer shares his hopes and fears for the year ahead

As the New Year begins, we asked some leading industry figures what were the three things that they are most excited about for 2016 and what they see as the biggest risks.

We start with Paul Hamer, chief executive of consultancy WYG.

The three things we are most excited about at WYG in 2016 are:

Northern Powerhouse - Helping UK government to define, programme and commence the overarching creation of a Northern Powerhouse that brings together the strength of the region from the Humber across to the Mersey and delivers actual benefit to the UK economy as a whole.

Our international role - Playing a leading global role in helping the international development community create stability across fragile states and provide solutions to the humanitarian and refugee crisis whilst supporting the eradication of poverty and disease across the developing world.

Growing the business - Building on our success to date as we look to build our business further through key and focussed acquisitions to supplement our organic growth plans - retaining, developing and harnessing talent is a core focus for WYG.

In terms of key risks to the sector and our marketplace, we will be keeping a keen eye on:

Politics and economy - the overarching geo-political situation and the UK's role in the global marketplace.

Funding - stasis of funding and lack of true political will to make critical investments in UK energy, transport and infrastructure which will also support the creation of Britain's Energy Coast and The Northern Powerhouse.

Global finance - the potential for weakness in the global financial markets to affect the US, Middle-East and China and any impact that the impending UK EU referendum may have on the wider UK outlook.

Skills - the future pipeline of talent and resource.

If you would like to contact Andy Walker about this, or any other story, please email awalker@infrastructure-intelligence.com.