National Infrastructure Forum conference

We had a very successful day at the first National Infrastructure Forum conference. It is a new conference bringing together Local Government and their LEP partners, Central Government and the Private Sector to discuss the key challenges that must be overcome to develop this new plan moving forward. With public capital investment of over £100 billion committed to 2020-2021, part of a £483 billion project Pipeline, the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan is without doubt one of the major components of current government policy. The newly formed National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure Projects Authority have already introduced new policy, updated research and a number of consultations yet the size and scope of some of the 319 projects and 283 programmes still raise serious issues such as skills shortages, financing, a lack of innovation and planning, and questions around the actual benefits for economic growth. Thank you to all our colleagues who joined us at our stand where we proudly displayed new materials. Duncan Powell, Local Partnerships’ Infrastructure Programme Director, spoke at a morning session alongside Richard Harrington, Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire Thames Valley LEP, Bev Hindle from Oxfordshire County Council, and Paddy Bradley from Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, on funding localised infrastructure projects. We look forward to returning to the conference in 2017.