Published
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) recently published its 2023 National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline. Andy Murray, Executive Director of the Major Projects Association, shares some of the key findings of particular interest to our members.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) published its 2023 National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline this month. The 660 projects in the pipeline covers both public and private projects above a certain threshold over the next ten years that are either planned or projected.
First published in 2017, the last pipeline was published in 2021. This year’s pipeline sees an increase in total value since 2021, from £650bn to £700bn-£775bn. But before we jump to a conclusion that the increase in value means a bigger pipeline, the report notes it is broadly the same in magnitude just that the updated cost reflects the impact of high inflation that has disproportionally affected construction since the last report. The report estimates that the value of planned work to be delivered by 2024/25 is £164bn at roughly £82bn p.a. compared to £50bn p.a. in 2021.
Inflation aside, the main updates to the 2021 report include an increase in the number of projects using modern methods of construction (showing the positive impact of the Transforming Infrastructure Performance initiative – TIP 2030), an increasing proportion of energy and water projects, and a decrease in the percentage of projects that are planned vs projected. The latter may be the impact of the proximity of the next spending review and the business plan settlements for the utility firms by their regulators. However, it is indicative that there is perhaps less certainty in the pipeline than in 2021.
The report acknowledges there have been delays to implementation due to challenges with planning and consent for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) which could account for some of the increase from £50bn p.a. to £82bn p.a. to 2024/25 beyond the impact of inflation as some back-ending of projects in the period could also be inferred. The issue of ‘Planning and Consents’ is the topic of our seminar ‘Consents and Stakeholders – Embracing the planning process’ on 7th February in Birmingham and input from members ahead of the seminar align to the challenges highlighted in the IPA report.
Also of interest to members is an apparent shift from focusing just on achieving net zero by 2050 to also considering the need for ‘adaption’ as we increasingly face the impacts of climate change (not mentioned once in the 2021 report). This shift is the topic of our ‘No Planet B – How do I make the transformation?’ seminar on sustainability in April.
The pipeline report includes a good deal of analysis and useful case studies. The raw data supporting the pipeline report is also available in xlsx format on gov.uk.