Paul Maile is a partner at Eversheds Sutherland
The UK is due an infrastructure revolution. It’s time for a renaissance of public-works building to bring our aged and end-of-life energy, utilities and transport networks into the present century. And to make them fit for the future. The political will is there, or at least it was in the rhetoric in Labour’s election manifesto. So if the government is committed to an overhaul of our infrastructure, what are the challenges to delivery?
“The very first challenge is a suitable strategy of prioritisation between competing infrastructure requirements”
Firstly, there is a lot to be done. A significant part of our water and sewerage infrastructure was built during the Victorian civil engineering boom, well over a century ago. Since then, population and lifestyle changes have put that ageing infrastructure under significant stress. At a time of climate change, a UK-wide water-delivery strategy is needed to provide water security to all. This would require additional reservoir construction and a renewed distribution network.
Our energy infrastructure was built around the premise that electricity was to be generated at coal and gas power plants, and disseminated from there. We now face the challenge of getting solar and wind energy schemes, in rural or offshore locations, connected to the supply network. This is in the wake of, and increase in, renewable energy since the national grid was built.
Our freight, transport and logistics systems need to adapt to a net-zero world with renewed focus on rail freight, electric vehicles and short sea shipping, while aviation demand continues to grow. Now is the time to build. And the very first challenge is a suitable strategy of prioritisation and resource allocation between competing infrastructure requirements.
Overcoming the hurdles
No one can deny the supply chain challenges that significant infrastructure projects face. Materials and skilled labour are needed in vast quantities for nationally significant projects. Both are in short supply in the UK amid global competition for both, as prices rise.
The lead-in times for such schemes require particular planning expertise. Often we are seeking to ‘over consent’ so that the planning permission can match the technology and construction ability available at the time of implementation. It’s best to build as much flexibility as possible into a planning permission to allow for the complex procurement processes that public bodies must go through. Some flex can also allow for uncertainty in the supply chains for particular materials.
The actual process of decision-making on whether to grant a planning permission can be theoretically streamlined as a result of reforms. It is a process that legal and policy reforms can actually influence. Skilled and experienced planning consultants, lawyers and property professionals are needed to carry out the consultation and survey work needed in advance of applications. And with the increasing complexity of planning permissions themselves, it takes longer to satisfy planning conditions and longer still to obtain the sign-off of those conditions from stretched local planning authorities.
The planning system overall is frequently blamed for delays to projects. At the moment, it seems that there isn’t a day that goes by without the government or opposition proposing planning reforms. But the irony is that those very proposed reforms are themselves delaying factors. Every proposed reform creates uncertainty; every implemented reform creates the need for changes to the requirements for a planning application or decision.
For now, the political focus should be on ensuring that the system the UK already has runs properly and efficiently. But the need to attract talented and trained people into local authority and key public stakeholders planning teams doesn’t make eye-catching headlines.