Infrastructure decisions ‘need a local voice without a local mindset’

GETTING our approaches to regional leadership and to procurement right will be critical in improving the UK’s infrastructure, said the author of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).    

Sir John Armitt, the former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, created the blueprint for the nascent Commission in his eponymous review for the Labour Party in 2013.

It has now been adopted as Government policy and Sir John, in his role as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), is leading a coalition to produce an independent assessment on the UK’s future infrastructure needs and how they can be met.

He was in Birmingham this morning at an invitation event hosted by Pinsent Masons to introduce the National Needs Assessment and to get regional involvement in its collection of evidence for its report that will be published in the autumn.
 
Speaking afterwards, two themes that his thoughts coalesced around were the role of leadership in infrastructure projects and the importance of the funder in shaping those projects.

He believes successful projects such as the Olympics and Crossrail benefitted from “some very strong political leadership from the outset”, which is what the regions must aspire to.

He said: “The challenge for local politicans is to not be too local, to be able to take a regional-level decision. That requires co-operation across boundaries, and to recognise that the region is more important than the elements within it.

“It requires political leadership, which Manchester over the years has done demonstrably well.”

The strength of regional leadership ultimately rests on how strong central government will allow it to be, and how control of the purse strings it is prepared to cede.

“The challenge for devolution is how much central government feels able to give up fiscal powers to local government,” he said. “It’s a difficult one. If you are providing the money you want to be able to say what is done.”

Sir John believes it is the project funder – the client – who is responsible for the secondary outcomes of a scheme, such as the origins of materials or the environmental impact.

“The leadership has to come from clients,” he said. “They set the tone of any project. If the only thing they are interested in is cost, then contractors will do that. If they want it to hit emissions targets, contractors can do that.

“I do strongly believe that what happens comes down to the clients and they have the power to drive change.”

The biggest change he wants to see is a new approach to infrastructure that removes party politics and short-termism while adding in public engagement (as opposed to mere consultation) and a broader understanding of the challenges of major projects.

“My long-term hope is that we can get a much more stable policy and decision-making framework about our infrastructure in the UK that enables industry to see a pipeline of projects in the future, to invest in and to build their teams, that will lead to a more productive industry,” he said. “And to ensure that people in the UK will enjoy a quality of life that is continually improving.

“I don’t see why it should not be achievable. There will always be a few hiccups but if you have cross-party support and the public understands they are long-term issues that are often very difficult, then I think we can do it better than we have done for the last 50 years, that’s for sure.”