1.1 Over the next five years between £15 billion and £20 billion per annum in the UK will be spent directly on renewals and capacity enhancement projects and programmes - principally civil engineering works. The Infrastructure Cost Review identified the opportunity to make efficiency savings on this spending of at least 15 percent, worth £2 billion - £3 billion per annum.
1.2 Reducing the costs of infrastructure delivery will allow the UK to renew and build more for less and provide more resilient infrastructure as a key plank for wider economic growth. It will also support growth by giving confidence to international investors in UK infrastructure, and improve the competitiveness of the UK construction industry by addressing concerns about higher costs, lower productivity and skills and wasteful processes.
1.3 Radically different delivery models are required to achieve integration in the infrastructure delivery process and in order to promote early involvement and innovation at all levels of the supply chain. Over many years in the UK, there has been fragmentation of the construction industry and a significant shift towards the use of subcontracting. Compounded by the problems of infrastructure pipeline uncertainty and overly complex procurement approaches, this has increased transaction costs and deterred industry from a more strategic approach to investment in skills, technology and innovation.
1.4 Successful adoption of the measures in this implementation plan will benefit all infrastructure projects and programmes at each stage of delivery. In the short term there are significant projects and programmes already underway or imminent. For example the main works on Crossrail, the continuing UK Waste Programme and the Network Rail investment programme. Looking forward, there is significant planned growth to come from the nuclear build programme and renewable energy sector, plus continued investment in water and rail, including the Thames Tideway Tunnel and continuing development of transport projects in highways, Mersey Gateway Bridge and High Speed 2.1
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1 Some of these projects are the subject of ongoing public consultations and approvals, the outcomes of which will determine if and how they proceed.