The UK's national infrastructure is a system of increasingly interdependent networks. A silo-based approach will miss the opportunities and threats which flow from increasing systemic linkages. This plan looks across sectors and departmental boundaries to bring infrastructure policy together into a cohesive whole.
The Government has commissioned research that has estimated opportunities for major savings if interdependencies in infrastructure delivery are properly harnessed. For example, use of the Channel Tunnel to lay an electrical interconnector to Europe, saving £130 to £180 million compared to running it across the sea bed.
As set out in Chapter 4, to ensure that such opportunities and risks are systematically addressed in the future the Government:
• will work with major infrastructure project teams to pilot reviews during the design and engineering phase of major projects to consider what opportunities for interdependencies may exist and how they may be exploited; and
• has published supplementary guidance to the Green Book on infrastructure, which will build on existing practices and support an integrated and consistent approach to the consideration and appraisal of infrastructure projects across Government.