Comprehensive Spending Review creates certainty for infrastructure investment

Today’s Comprehensive Spending Review from the chancellor Rachel Reeves set out some of the government’s spending plans for infrastructure through to 2030.

Rachel Ellison, advisory and programme development managing director for UK and Europe at Mott MacDonald, has responded to the announcements: “Plans to spend £113bn on infrastructure provides certainty to the construction industry and ultimately enables us to realise positive social outcomes for the communities we serve.

“This commitment, along with the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy that we expect to see published later this month, delivers a strong pipeline of work that will allow us to invest in innovations and the careers of the people who will deliver this work.

“As an industry, we now have the opportunity to work together to effectively deliver these programmes, projects and interventions as part of an integrated strategy giving the public confidence in our ability to deliver the expected outcomes.”

Mott MacDonald water and environment managing director for UK & Europe Tim Hill urged for climate resilience to be baked into the planned infrastructure investments: “The spending plans announced today represent a significant opportunity to deliver differently and ensure climate resilience is built into everything we do. This approach will maximise the benefits for society but achieving that will require a more strategic, systems thinking approach than ever before.

“As an example of the change needed, we must move away from projects like sustainable drainage being planned on a site-by-site basis, to a more regional, catchment-level scale to create the biggest benefit in terms of resilience. Investment must be driven by greatest whole life value to society and not just at lowest capital cost.”

Thomas Knight, transport market lead for UK and Europe at Mott MacDonald, added: “Government’s renewed and increased commitment to transport infrastructure investment will deliver transformational projects like East West Rail, the Midlands Rail Hub and the TransPennine Route Upgrade.

“These schemes, alongside the four-year funding settlement with Transport for London, will not only strengthen the UK’s long-term economic resilience, but also help unlock the full potential of towns and cities across the country. Confirmation that Northern Powerhouse Rail will feature in the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy is also encouraging.”

Mark Ewen, managing director of Mott MacDonald’s Buildings business, commented: “Our experience shows that you need to really understand the fabric of a community to create a deliverable vision for the future that drives growth. Today’s announcement to refocus the Green Book appraisal process through a place-based lens will help re-emphasise the importance of locally-driven initiatives and integrated and sustainable solutions, in time delivering transformative placemaking in local communities.”   

Responding to the nuclear announcements made yesterday, which were further clarified today, Mott MacDonald nuclear divisional manager for UK & Europe Ian Baird said: “This has set out a clear ambition for the nuclear sector with the investment news on Sizewell C and progress on bringing small modular reactors (SMRs) to market.

“Private sector will need to be increasingly involved in developing and deploying SMRs as alternative routes to market to drive innovation and scale up. The plans will deliver energy resilience and are key to reaching net zero by 2050, as well as creating significant growth and thousands of new jobs.”