Re-flow examines the infrastructure policy announcements made by the UK government and what it means for UK firms working in the sector
Building a long-term plan
In their government spending review analysis last week, the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) reaffirmed that ‘infrastructure is not just a cost: it’s a catalyst. A catalyst for growth, for resilience, and for the transition to net zero.’
The spending review, which sets departmental and investment budgets as far as 2030, appears to fulfil ICE’s hopes. Last year, the chancellor announced an “an end to short-termism” and later that week, unpscked the theme even further with the release of the government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy plan.
Infrastructure highlights from the spending review
Transport and connectivity
There were several individual transport funding announcements, including:
- £25.3bn to “progress delivery” of HS2 from Birmingham to London Euston
- £24bn to maintain and improve motorways and local roads
- £3.5bn for the TransPennine Route Upgrade to reduce journey times between Manchester and Leeds, delivered by “the early 2030s”
- £2.5bn in investment for East-West Rail (between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge)
- £2.2bn for Transport for London’s capital renewals programme
- £300m of rail investment in Wales
- £240m to improve Leeds station
Energy
- £14.2bn for building Sizewell C, generating power for 6 million homes and 10,000 jobs
- An investment from Great British Energy and Great British Energy – Nuclear of over £8.3bn on “homegrown clean power”
- A £2.5bn investment in a pioneering Small Modular Reactor (SMR) programme with Rolls-Royce named as the partner
- £13.9bn for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
- £9.4bn over the Spending Review period for carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) technology
Skills and apprenticeships
- A new £1.2bn skills package will fund apprenticeships and technical courses for over one million young people.
Steel and construction materials
- British Steel will receive investment to modernise operations and secure domestic supply chains. This includes a commitment to use British steel in major public projects – Heathrow, for example, has signed the UK Steel Charter.
Housing and regeneration
Affordable homes
- £39bn was assigned for a replacement for the Affordable Homes Programme, the largest individual commitment in the review.
- Total spending on the programme is set to rise to £4bn a year by 2029/30 and increase with inflation in the following years.
- £4.8bn has been promised in financial transactions to boost private investment in housebuilding (managed by Homes England), and £1bn over the same period for remediation of social housing.
Public buildings and retrofit
- The government assigned £30bn over five years for “day-to-day maintenance and repair of the NHS estate”, including £5bn for the most critical building repairs.
- £2.4bn will go towards rebuilding schools, with another £2.3bn for classroom repairs.
Workforce and employment reforms
- The National Living Wage will rise to £12.20 per hour and sick pay strengthened.
Companies are already preparing
Across the country, infrastructure companies are upgrading their workflows and gaining accreditations – ISOs, PAS 2080, and other frameworks – to make themselves more competitive.
There is a clear ambition in the UK to take a global lead in not only in net zero, but in using data to flush out ‘bad agents’ responsible for late payments, and shifting towards innovative digital processes that can “bring profit margins in double digits”. The push for new technology – the likes of BIM, the Internet of Things, and AI – will benefit firms already committed to digital workflows.
National Highways are leading the way by mandating carbon management frameworks like PAS 2080 into the design and execution of the Lower Thames Crossing and other projects. More are likely to follow.
Digitising workflows in order to collect field data and to stay compliant with ISOs – whether for information security, environmental management, or quality management – is a step on that journey.
Examples from Re-flow clients:
Advantex
Advantex, an IT solutions provider specialising in cybersecurity and physical security, faced challenges when scheduling and scaling their diverse operations.
Microsoft Dynamics and Outlook couldn’t cover what they needed. They settled on Re-flow as a flexible piece of field management software with data security and management features that made their workflow more efficient and kept their accreditations and ratings safe, which included:
- ISO:9001/2000
- ISO:9001/2015
- NICEIC Certification
- Cyber Essentials Plus
- NSI Gold quality seal
Now Re-flow provides Advantex with a data-secure, flexible field management solution that allows the business to accurately plan their long-term schedule for their entire team. They’ve gained real-time visibility of data and job progress, customisable form creation, and professional client-facing documents.
Managing director and co-founder David O’Connell said, “It’s a fantastic product.’
Breedon Group
Breedon Group are a leading construction materials provider operating across Great Britain, Ireland, and the USA. They also offer contract surfacing, highway maintenance, and on-site batching and concrete supply. With an annual turnover of £1.4bn, almost 400 workers, and over 500 vehicles, they take advantage of Re-flow’s ability to collect data from the field in order to meet requirements from their clients and contracts.
“Re-flow has allowed us to grow,” Iain Johnston, Breedon’s national managing quantity surveyor said. “Its innovation is clear, and as a piece of software, it hasn’t stood still.”
Discover more about businesses using Re-flow
The post From roads to reactors: spending review opportunities for UK infrastructure firms appeared first on Planning, Building & Construction Today.
