As highlighted above, the NIU will be focussed on working across the sector to deliver the evidence base in early 2014. We expect this to enable a further depth to the conversations that are happening and to help inform the policy work underway. Investment analysis and coordination are still key principles that will be a continued focus along with an increasing willingness to discuss accountability and performance. Perhaps most significantly, we will be looking to see a maturing and shifting debate on the 'Response' to our future infrastructure demands - both using our existing assets more effectively and exploring alternative sources of funding where there is a robust case for new investment. It is the nature of infrastructure that it is designed to meet peak demand. Measures to smooth that demand and reduce the peak can delay the need for new investment and increase the productivity of our infrastructure.
In summary, the year has seen progress on both aspects of the Plan work programme. The challenges remain but we see things moving in the right direction with good collaboration and relationships developing, resulting in a strong willingness to engage in the hard discussions. Alongside the work programme and the developing evidence base, this bodes well as we look towards the next Plan in 2015.
Finally, a big thank you to the National Infrastructure Advisory Board for the challenges and support they have provided, to the agencies that have engaged with the Plan and shown a willingness to share and evolve thinking, and to the infrastructure sector peak bodies and wider sector that are driving innovation and supporting the Plan work. Thank you.
David Taylor
Manager NIU
The role of Government Government has a number of diverse roles across the spectrum of infrastructure types. In some areas, government acts as a regulator of contestable markets, while in others it acts as infrastructure funder and/or owner. All things being equal, the government will favour the distributed decision-making power of private markets for the provision and ownership of infrastructure. Private providers subject to the disciplines of the product and capital markets are generally accepted as achieving greater efficiency and better outcomes. Government plays a supportive role in providing the legal framework for markets to operate efficiently so that providers can respond to changing preferences and allocate scarce resources over time. Any government needs to take care when considering direct investment but in certain circumstances, a government can play a direct role through intervening in a market, funding services or owning infrastructure. Government has such a role where: » there is an unambiguous market failure (eg, where the private sector is unwilling to provide services). In some circumstances, the nature of the infrastructural goods and services are such that a private market cannot flourish (these circumstances are generally where the infrastructure has the characteristics of "public goods"), or » distributional and equity objectives are demonstrably better achieved through in-kind provision than through income support or other targeted measures. Given the downsides and risks of government provision, such interventions will be rare and any government should transparently set out why and when it is departing from favouring market provision. This approach is consistent with the overall purpose of the Plan to improve investment certainty for business. |