Civils contractors today welcomed the UK Government’s focus on driving economic growth through the acceleration of infrastructure delivery.
The new Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng’s The Growth Plan 2022, published this morning, sets out specific infrastructure projects the Government will prioritise for acceleration across transport, energy and digital infrastructure.
In addition, the Government has said that it will move to tackle the UK’s “slow” and “fragmented” planning system to unleash the growth potential of investment in high quality infrastructure.
Commenting, Chief Executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Alasdair Reisner said: “Ahead of today’s Fiscal Event, we called on the Government to publish an updated pipeline of schemes to enable our members to plan for growth, and it is to be welcome that today’s announcement provides some of the clarity industry requires.
“We are in the process of evaluating the list of schemes at the moment and look forward to working with the Government and our members to deliver spades in the ground on these projects at the earliest opportunity.
“Any efforts to accelerate infrastructure delivery should be applauded, as ultimately this will drive much-needed economic growth.
“However, we have seen efforts to speed up delivery by past administrations, so we hope that the new Government will work with industry to ensure the measures announced today are genuinely transformative, and will enable the UK to harness infrastructure investment to deliver a high-growth economy in the months and years ahead.”
< ENDS >