Guest opinion: Too many infrastructure projects have been dropped or delayed
So, another “big vision” speech from the prime minister. After weeks of criticism over the Government’s poor handling of coronavirus and Brexit the call to arms at the Conservative Party’s online conference came straight out of the Johnson playbook.
Boost infrastructure investment and productivity. Build a better country. Look ahead to a bright future.
It’s certainly a timely intervention – not just as a sop to restless backbenchers and with half an eye on the Government’s poll ratings, but to business and industry too.
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Since the prime minister’s agenda setting “Build Build Build” speech at the end of June it’s striking just how little we’ve heard from ministers on how they intend to deliver this post-COVID transformation of Britain.
There quite evidently remains a major gap between this Government’s rhetoric and the actions that will actually give big business confidence. This is a problem when you’re relying on the private sector to lead an infrastructure revolution.
Many of the proposals that could make the Government’s vision a reality have either been quietly delayed or dropped entirely.
The National Infrastructure Strategy is now well overdue, holding up vital policy and spending decisions on transport, local growth, digital infrastructure and hitting “net zero” carbon emissions. More needs to be done to attract private finance and investment back to UK infrastructure as the CBI’s excellent “Investing in infrastructure” report recently made clear.
The much-vaunted Energy White Paper has suffered the same fate. An electric economy is within touching distance and can be genuinely transformational but requires strong Government backing and a funding model for new nuclear to make it happen. The commitment to make the UK a “world leader” in green energy by increasing generation in offshore wind is again suitably bold and visionary but rests on a “green industrial revolution” paper promised later this year.
The Devolution proposals were a key component of “levelling up”. Local government would be made more efficient, thus making it more effective. Increased local accountability would act as an incentive for more sensible decision-making and investment in major projects which would begin to bridge the north/south divide. This all makes sense, especially when responding to the pandemic necessitates local strategies. But the devolution proposals appear to have been dropped indefinitely.
And what of planning reform? We again hear that radical changes to the planning system will boost housebuilding but as yet have no indication that the Government is prepared to take on its backbenchers to make that happen.
This speaks to the dangerous balancing act that is trying to keep “red wall” MPs and Tory MPs in the shires and suburbs happy at the same time. What’s more, if the planning reforms do ever materialise it will be at least three years before we begin to see the benefits.
Cause for genuine optimism is that much of the Government’s vision is achievable.
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Strong decision-making and investment would certainly put the country in a much better place. Committing to delivery now in all these areas would aid the Covid response and build greater confidence in our post-Brexit future. But this requires less talk and more action. Here’s hoping we start to see that.