National Infrastructure Plan

Another Spending Review.

Eye-watering public sector borrowing figures associated with the pandemic - creating what Rishi Sunak delicately termed in the Commons a little earlier today nothing short of an "economic emergency" - will steal the headlines in tomorrow's papers and on the nightly news bulletins. Expect lengthy analysis as to what it all means for future tax and spend (though it does not take a fiscal genius to guess that one is destined to go up, whilst the other is highly likely to go down). Decisions on all of that are stalled to another day.

However, less is likely to be said about the new National Infrastructure Plan published alongside the Chancellor's speech.

This is weighed down less by doom and gloom, but more by good cheer and optimism. It even enjoys a 'boosterism' fuelled Forward from the Prime Minister - never happier than when talking about infrastructure, and placing it in the context of his levelling up agenda.

The Review is a significant document. It addresses at length energy, transport and social infrastructure, alongside wider issues around infrastructure funding, procurement and transforming the construction sector

A few stand out points from me though in this short post - purely in relation to energy and the planning system. There is link to the Review itself beneath these:

Decarbonising the economy (p46)

All promising reading, and clearly the government wishing to set a standard ahead of next year's delayed COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow:

1. ￡1 billion to support the establishment of CCS in 4 clusters to capture 10 megatons of CO2 per year by 2030 (p53);

2. investing in hydrogen to scale up the UK’s capacity to produce both ‘blue’ and ‘green’ hydrogen - the Review promises a UK Hydrogen Strategy next year and the government is clearly putting hydrogen production and distribution at the forefront of its energy policy (p54); and

3. further support for the role out of charging infrastructure to support electric cars ahead of that all important 2030 date when petrol cars will no longer be sold (p56-7).

Planning (p81-83)

As though the White Paper was not enough, more reforms for the planning system are promised this time in the infrastructure arena. Housing was "so last-Summer". Note the following:

1. consultations on new PD rights for school and hospital expansion; and

2. reference to the long awaited changes on EIA - a good test of the government's commitment to "equivalence" with EU environmental standards post-Brexit. Will timing trump standards? (page 78-79)

3. more still to come from Project Speed, with a new National Infrastructure Planning Reform Programme to make the NSIP process more effective and to speed up major project decision making. The government states it will, "remain committed to effective infrastructure delivery, implementing reforms at pace, removing barriers to delivery and continuing to test current assumptions. This will ensure that the government’s ambitious infrastructure pipeline is delivered better, greener and faster". Infrastructure planners - you have been warned.

4. the government has reiterated earlier calls to embed "good design" into infrastructure projects. Purists will be pleased to hear the Review leaves the word "beauty" to the White Paper, as that appears destined to now only be used to describe the low carbon, green homes of the future we're all destined to live in.

Plenty more in the actual Review, which you can find at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938049/NIS_final_web_single_page.pdf