The Institution of Civil Engineers has launched a consultation seeking to “resolve whether the UK’s model of planning, prioritising and designing infrastructure – as led by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) – is as effective as possible.”
The institution said the time was right to consider what improvements to the model might be made to improve long-term decision making on infrastructure priorities.
ICE Fellow and past-President, Paul Sheffield, said: “Policymakers need to make decisions in a timely and effective way and these decisions must be founded on the best available evidence. Taking time to review whether our infrastructure planning systems are working is important – and I encourage all those interested in delivering a sustainable UK to engage with us and share their thoughts.”
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It asks whether broadening the NIC’s scope from economic infrastructure, to include social infrastructure such as housing and green infrastructure, would help deliver better strategic planning outcomes. Other questions include: should cost and affordability constrain infrastructure advice given to the government? And should there be Parliamentary involvement in the infrastructure planning process, to build better cross-party consensus?
The consultation is open to “all civil engineers, infrastructure system experts, and those who share ICE’s aim of seeing the infrastructure system's role being maximised to deliver a more sustainable UK.”
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