King’s Speech 2024: Long-term infrastructure investment plans welcomed

King Charles III’s speech at the State Opening of Parliament today set out the plans and policies to be brought forward by the new Labour government.

Richard Risdon, managing director for UK and Europe at Mott MacDonald, has responded to the proposals on investment in infrastructure in the King’s Speech: “Since the election it has been encouraging to see the pace at which the new government is starting to put its manifesto commitments into action. The King’s Speech adds to the momentum by setting out the legislative agenda for the next few months, which is critical for both us and our clients.

“The proposals to reform planning are absolutely central to delivering economic growth, getting Britain building and accelerating the delivery of high-quality infrastructure. The other parts of the speech that I feel could be beneficial to our sector are the announcements about Great British Energy and Great British Railways, as well as the English Devolution Bill. What businesses and communities now need is to understand how these plans will be prioritised by the government and how they will be put into action quickly.

“These announcements, combined with the National Wealth Fund and the new government’s approach to attracting private investment, are very positive for the UK infrastructure sector. What I see is a strong intent to develop long-term plans backed by new ideas for how to fund them but this needs to be backed up by a full three-year Spending Review this autumn.

“Finally, I spoke in the run up to the general election about the urgent need for the government to work with our sector on our skills challenges, so the plans for Skills England and reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy are a move in the right direction. However, I urge government to continue to work with industry on this issue: we can’t deliver on the infrastructure investment needed without enough people with the right skills.”

The formation of Great British Energy (GBE) was also welcomed by Mott MacDonald managing director of energy – Europe Claudio Tassistro, who said: “The formalisation of GBE as a publicly owned clean power company is great news as it will help create a greater focus on delivery of renewable energy projects. GBE, along with plans to focus on energy independence and unlock investment in energy infrastructure announced today, are also critical to achieving the Labour Government’s ambition to deliver a net zero electricity system by 2030. The challenge now is on how these plans will be put into action and how the government plans to empower the industry and regulator.”

Commenting on the proposals on Great British Railways, Mott MacDonald rail principal account leader Suzanne Mathieson added: “I welcome the commitments made to reform the planning system to accelerate investment in high quality infrastructure and look forward to the opportunities this will bring in combination with the formal transition of Network Rail into Great British Railways (GBR). The plans for GBR promise to lead to the delivery of a more efficient, safer, more sustainable railway for all.”

With regard to the planning reform proposals, Mott MacDonald head of the Cities Studio Oliver Steele said: " We welcome the government’s strategic focus to speed up the planning system for housing. With around two thirds of local authorities in England not having an up-to-date local plan, the most important thing is to put planning policy front-and-centre again in our planning system, overseen by well-resourced local planning departments. This will allow the trade-offs created by new development to be fully considered by local residents in the round. We await the detail, but we welcome the intent.”