The National Infrastructure Strategy recognises the importance of innovation, new technology and private investment.
Infrastructure underpins the economy. Transport, digital, energy and utility networks are vital for jobs, businesses and economic growth. But they also have a profound impact on people’s daily lives. The government wants to deliver an infrastructure revolution: a radical improvement in the quality of the UK’s infrastructure to help level up the country, strengthen the Union, and put the UK on the path to net zero emissions by 2050.
The Strategy sets out the government’s plans to deliver on this ambition, bringing together their long-term goals with the short-term imperative to rebuild the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the government helps the economy to recover it will also seek to address the long-term issues that have held back UK infrastructure. These issues include ‘stop-start’ public investment, insufficient funding for regions outside of London, slow adoption of new technology, policy uncertainty that undermines private investment, and project delivery plagued by delays and cost overruns.
The Strategy sets out how the government will address these issues and do things differently: how it will build back fairer, faster and greener. It describes how the government will:
- Boost growth and productivity across the whole of the UK, levelling up and strengthening the Union: the government wants to level up communities and nations across the UK through investment in rural areas, towns and cities, from major national projects to local priorities;
- Put the UK on the path to meeting its net zero emissions target by 2050: bold action is needed to transform the UK’s infrastructure to meet net zero and climate change commitments. The government will continue to decarbonise the UK’s power, heat and transport networks – which together account for over two-thirds of UK emissions – and take steps to adapt to the risks posed by climate change;
- Support private investment: the UK has a proud record of attracting private investment into its infrastructure. But the government recognises investors have faced uncertainty in the past few years. This Strategy – and the Energy White Paper which will follow shortly – are aimed at providing investors with clarity over the government’s plans, so they can look to the UK with confidence and help deliver the upgrades and projects needed across the country; and
- Accelerate and improve delivery: the government wants to transform the way infrastructure projects are delivered in the UK. This will be achieved through wide-ranging reforms from speeding up the planning system, to improving the way projects are chosen, procured and delivered, and greater use of cutting-edge construction technology.
This approach is underpinned by high levels of government investment, with record levels of investment for the railways, strategic roads, broadband networks and flood defences.
This Strategy also puts innovation and new technology at the heart of the government’s approach. Every infrastructure sector could face transformative technological change over the next twenty years. From electric vehicles, to hydrogen heating systems, to 5G and its successors, new technologies have enormous potential to improve the environment and the daily lives of people across the UK. This Strategy will ensure the UK is at the forefront of this technological revolution.
