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According to the Treasury, its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published today, is a landmark document, coming with the promise of £725bn infrastructure investment over the next decade.

“The strategy sets out a long-term plan for how the government will invest in infrastructure and ensure that funding is spent effectively and efficiently, marking a new approach to how projects are planned and delivered,” it says.

“The strategy provides the certainty and stability needed to attract investment, boosting British supply chains and jobs, and takes a joined-up view to improve planning and delivery across all types of infrastructure.”

Some industry big shots are taking the government at its word.

“It offers the long-term certainty the industry needs,” said Costain chief executive Alex Vaughan.

“Today’s strategy is a pivotal moment for our industry,” said Wates Group public sector director Steve Beechey, adding: “It gives the long-term direction and certainty needed to enable investment in the new technologies and training of skilled workers essential to deliver the next generation of critical national infrastructure.”

But actually it is hard to find anything in the document that the government has already told us before over the past 12 months: that it is exploring ways of getting pension funds to invest in in infrastructure, considering the use of the regulated asset base model (as used for the Thames Tideway tunnel) to the Lower Thames Crossing, and encouraging other private finance workarounds that might avoid all the catastrophes of the past. But it is short on detail.

“The careful, targeted use of PPPs [public-private partnerships] for the projects and sectors where risks can be well managed so that private financing achieves value for money,” the strategy document says. “The government will consider the use of PPPs in projects and sectors where there is a revenue stream, appropriate risk-transfer can be achieved, and value for money for taxpayers can be secured.”

The only example offered is HS2’s Euston station, though that is very much work in progress.

It adds: “The government will explore the feasibility of using new PPP models for taxpayer-funded projects in very limited circumstances where they could represent value for money. “The government will explore the potential to use PPPs:

• in certain types of primary and community health infrastructure; and
• for taxpayer-funded public estate decarbonisation projects such as the installation of solar PV, battery storage and low carbon heating solutions (where PPP may be considered alongside alternative private finance models).”

A decision whether to use PPPs in these circumstances will be taken by the autumn 2025 budget 2025, it said, once the new National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) had had a chance to chew on it.

Not everyone is impressed.

James Corrigan, UK managing director for infrastructure at construction consultant Turner & Townsend, said: “Today’s strategy brings some level of clarity for the industry’s direction over the next decade.  It’s promising to hear the government restate its commitment to working with industry to explore public-private partnerships to help bridge the funding gap. However, in parts, the language remains cautious.  To deliver the government’s big ambitions surrounding its missions, we need to see thorough consideration of where public-private partnerships can play a bigger role.

 “For now, we’re still awaiting the vital details around investment – on which schemes will be seeking private funding, timelines, and what agreements and mechanisms will be set up to encourage private investment.  NISTA’s National Infrastructure & Construction Pipeline, expected in the coming weeks, will be crucial to providing this certainty and helping establish a steady, yet dynamic supply chain that can support growing demand and increase capacity in the years to come.”

Richard Cook, economics director at development consultant Pegasus Group, said: “Today’s announcement is essentially the repackaging of a lot of existing policies and promises. Of course, £725bn investment into infrastructure is a welcome and much-needed commitment: it could prove transformational in boosting the UK’s overall productivity. But it also would have been good to see more ‘meat on the bone’ in the strategy itself.

“Focusing on both economic and social value – such as championing transport connectivity between towns and cities – will be valuable in keeping the UK a competitive economy, so it is positive that the strategy recognises this.

“As a nation, we are under serious pressure to grow, and infrastructure investment is essential for this. The UK will need to meet its ambitious targets for levelling up its infrastructure and housing; but to do so, the construction sector urgently needs a boost to its workforce. The strategy’s funding commitment will make a big difference in plugging the construction skills gap, but we need this to start to come to fruition now.”

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