The last four years of Coalition government have seen progress made towards improving the UK’s infrastructure but more action is needed to create truly world class infrastructure, according to the Institution of Civil Engineers latest State of the Nation report on infrastructure, published today.

Of the six sectors examined, only water and strategic transport were rated as “adequate for now”. The report down-graded the performance in local transport from that seen in 2010 to now class the sector as “at risk”.

And despite some improvement being seen in the flood management, energy and waste sectors, all were described by the report as “requires attention”.

The 2014 grades in full

Local Transport: Grade D- minus “at risk” (2010 Grade: D)

Flood Management: Grade C- minus “requires attention” (2010 Grade: C)

Energy:  Grade C- minus “requires attention” (2010 Grade: D)

Strategic Transport: Grade B “adequate for now”  (2010 Grade: B)

Water: Grade B “adequate for now” (2010 Grade: B)

Waste: Grade C+ plus “requires attention”(2010 Grade: C)

“Everyone now understands that infrastructure is a vital enabler for the UK,” said ICE vice president Keith Clark who chaired the State of the Nation panel. “But the focus needs to be on doing something rather than just thinking about it,” he added, pointing out that government must press forward and make the tough decisions and also work to implement legislation that is already in place.”

The ICE set out ten key recommendations to boost the action needed to press forward with infrastructure investment - see below.

Continued cross party support will, he said, be essential in future as the gap between society’s needs and the amount that government can afford would require difficult political decisions, not least when it comes to maintenance.

“If you can’t maintain the assets that you have now then you shouldn’t be building more,” he said. “Drastic reductions in maintenance will cost us in the long term.”

In particular, Clarke highlighted the need for government to react to the increasing threat to infrastructure resilience from climate change and to prepare for the impact that this threat is likely to have on society and on the economy.

He warned that society should be prepared to accept that, as extremes of weather became more common, it may not be possible in future to keep all of the nation’s infrastructure operational all of the time and at any cost.

“As the 2013/14 winter floods showed, unplanned interruptions in our networks are costly to society and the economy,” he said. “But, importantly, we must all recognise that our infrastructure cannot be resilient to everything and it will become more difficult to run all services in all conditions – it will also not be cost effective. Clearly there are some difficult decisions ahead regarding just how resilient the UK should be, and also what networks can and should operate 24/7 in what conditions.”

"Everyone now understands that infrastructure is a vital enabler for the UK. But the focus needs to be on doing something rather than just thinking about it" Keith Clark

He said that in addition to these difficult decisions, government would have to work hard to manage the public’s expectations on availability during adverse conditions as there would never be enough money in the public purse to ensure that infrastructure was truly resilient.

“Funding will always be constrained as there are only two sources – tax and user charging - both ultimately falling on the consumer,” he said. “The balance between the two is a choice for the Government of the day, but irrespective of where it comes from, both are constrained resources and must be used efficiently.”

Adonis: challenge to profession - get costs down

Shadow transport spokesman Lord Adonis challenged the infrastructure profession to reduce the high cost of building new assets in the UK. 

Speaking at the launch of the ICE State of the Nation report on infrastructure Adonis said the premium paid for constructing in the UK was the source of great frustration for clients and politicians alike.

“We seem to have constant cost escalation in this sector,” he said, highlighting that in most other industrial sectors the focus on efficiency meant the opposite was true. “Our project planning is so doom laden that we put in many extra costs fort contingency. We have not managed to become world leaders in developing infrastructure because our costs are too high.”

“There is no substitute for political leadership. The biggest thing holding back infrastructure is the inability to take decisions.”

Lord Adonis

Adonis said that the UK had to continue to invest in its historically underfunded infrastructure and that meant government being prepared to make tough decisions.

He emphasised that a future Labour government would make implementation of Sir John Armitt’s recent review of project deliver and his plan for an independent National Infrastructure Commission a priority as a “concrete plan and transparent way” to help government reach faster decisions.

“There is no substitute for political leadership,” he said. “The biggest thing holding back infrastructure is the inability to take decisions.”

He pointed out that even the government’s creation of the Airport Commission under Sir Howard Davies was no guarantee that a decision would ever be made. 

“Yes we now have the commission but everything is not going to be fine – particularly if it recommends development at Heathrow,” he said. “The easiest thing for whoever is in government is to find some long grass.”

Key ICE recommendations 

On strategic decision making and leadership, Government should:

1.Expand the criteria used as a basis for making decisions on priority infrastructure projects to reflect major future challenges– criteria should include resilience, availability, the pathway to a low carbon economy and better acknowledge “interdependencies” across networks – or how one sector impacts on another.

2.Be prepared to make tough choices regarding the levels of resilience in the UK’s infrastructure networks and the appropriate levels of service/availability - and work with industry to manage public expectation. 

3.Ensure the right regulatory environment exists to incentivise private infrastructure operators to build resilience into infrastructure. 

4.Be appropriately resourced to make and implement decisions on key issues affecting the UK’s resilience or competitiveness, such as aviation capacity. 

5.Provide more clarity, certainty and transparency for potential investors through the regularly published National Infrastructure Plan project pipeline - by including more detail on investable projects, their status, planning approval, ownership structure and revenue streams.  

On Energy, Local Transport and Flood Management sectors:

6.The Environment Agency and Lead Local Flood Authorities should fully implement a holistic approach to flood management, which includes a wider range of measures in addition to conventional flood defences – including building the physical resilience of communities by making property and infrastructure more resistant.

7.Government should provide the longer term certainty needed to improve flood resilience by committing to a long term capital and maintenance programme for Flood Management which protects funding beyond the current 5 year cycle.

8.Government should enact the secondary legislation to implement EMR by the end of this Parliament, establishing long-term investor confidence and entrenching cross-party support for electricity decarbonisation.

9.Government should extend devolved transport powers and funding through the creation of more powerful, fully integrated transport authorities in city regions.

10.Government and local authorities must establish a more ambitious joint programme to clear the road maintenance backlog, and commit to a more cost effective planned, preventative maintenance regime.