National Infrastructure Commission Chair Sir John Armitt has written to the Treasury to set out the input which the Commission will provide to support and inform the development of the government’s ten-year infrastructure strategy.

Writing in response to a letter from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt Hon Darren Jones MP in October to Sir John, the letter confirms the work the Commission is delivering in support of the development of the new strategy.

The work supplements the second National Infrastructure Assessment, which set out a long-term view of the UK’s economic infrastructure needs and priorities and a set of fully costed recommendations; the Commission’s view is that these recommendations provide a strong foundation for the ten-year strategy.

The government intends to publish a ten-year infrastructure strategy in the spring of 2025 – the Chief Secretary’s letter cknowledged that the Commission’s second National Infrastructure Assessment should provide the underlying foundations for the strategy.

Photo: Sir John Armitt, NIC Chair

However, Sir John says in his letter that there are a number of areas that would benefit from further analysis to reflect, in particular, the government’s focus on the benefits of infrastructure investment, its housing and industrial strategy commitments, and the desire to develop a credible project pipeline. The Commission will work with relevant government departments, agencies, local government, industry and others to develop our analysis.

Sir John’s letter is accomanied by a separate Appendix addressing the Treasury’s request for the Commission to deliver some further work in support of the strategy and to provide updated analysis and recommendations in the following policy areas:

• Transport
• Public investment programme
• Infrastructure pipeline
• Strategic and spatial planning
• Flood risk management

Specific policy area and key question(s) addressed for flood risk management are:

• What principles should be applied when identifying funding for flood infrastructure (both new and existing)?
• What subsequent reforms to current governance arrangements would be required?

Further details and scope

• Set out the Commission’s view of principles to apply when identifying appropriate sources of funding for new, and the maintenance of existing, flood infrastructure; consider balance between central and local public funding, and private sources.
• Establish the most appropriate geographic levels for plans for reducing flood risk; including consideration of devolving funding to match risk responsibility.
• Consider existing governance arrangements, suggesting potential changes to improve delivery of the next programme.

Sir John’s letter concludes by saying that the Commission has been working in partnership with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on early joint working in response to the government’s plan to create a new organisation, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, through a merger of the Commission with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.