Infrastructure: Investment

(asked on 6th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the analysis by the Institution of Civil Engineers that improving strategic planning of infrastructure investment would unlock more benefits than the current, siloed sector-by-sector approach, as outlined in its policy position statement, Evolving the UK strategic infrastructure planning system post-National Infrastructure Strategy, published July 2021.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 14th January 2022

The government is committed to the approach to infrastructure that was set out in the National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) in November 2020. This addresses the long-term issues that have held back investment in and delivery of UK infrastructure, and ensures a coherent cross-sectoral approach to decision-making.

As committed to in the NIS, last year the government reviewed the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC’s) role and responsibilities, and the NIC’s fiscal remit. As a result of those reviews, at Spending Review 2021 the government updated the NIC’s objectives to reflect the government’s climate commitments and increased the NIC’s fiscal remit. These changes will inform the NIC’s Second National Infrastructure Assessment, to be published in 2023, which launched recently with the publication of a baseline report and will set out the NIC’s expert independent assessment of the UK’s economic infrastructure needs. ICE’s policy statement was one of the sources that informed the reviews, and ongoing engagement with industry stakeholders and representative organisations remains central to the government’s infrastructure strategy.

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