The timeline for the UK’s second National Infrastructure Assessment has been announced, with work due to get underway later this year.
The UK’s second National Infrastructure Assessment will be published in the second half of 2023 and consultation and analysis to inform its recommendations will commence this autumn, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has confirmed.
The Commission’s Corporate Plan for the next three years, published today, sets out the process it will follow to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations to help the UK prepare for the challenges and opportunities of future decades.
The project will begin with publication of a baseline analysis of the current state of each of key infrastructure sectors. This data-led analysis will be published in the autumn, alongside the NIC’s proposals for the strategic themes and main priorities it intends to explore in the next Assessment.
Network Rail to hold £1bn auction for phone lines
Ministers hope the move will improve train services while boosting broadband speeds
26 April 2021 • 5:00am
Ministers have launched a £1bn auction for thousands of miles of phone lines running alongside Britain’s railways, in a move they hope will improve train services while boosting broadband speeds for millions of homes.
Private sector bidders will have the chance to upgrade 10,000 miles of cables, while also building 250 new mobile phone masts close to train lines. The investment could help the Government meet its commitments to drastically improve rural broadband and eradicate so-called 5G “notspots”.
26 Apr, 2021
Publication of the National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) in late 2020 marked the culmination of the first round of the UK’s approach to strategic infrastructure planning, while providing clarity on the direction of travel for infrastructure investment.
There have been a number of outcomes since the establishment of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in 2015.
There is transparency about the core demand drivers that are affecting the infrastructure system; there is a stronger evidence base on the nation’s infrastructure assets and how long term trends would change their use; and there is independent scrutiny of infrastructure decision-making through the NIC’s annual monitoring report.
Huge economic shock combined with unprecedented fiscal interventions results in a provisional fiscal deficit of £303bn or 14.5% of GDP for the year ended 31 March 2021.
The Office for National Statistics today published its first estimate of fiscal history, reporting a provisional fiscal deficit of £303bn or 14.5% of GDP for 2020-21 and a £344bn increase in public sector net debt from £1.8bn to £2.14tn at 31 March 2021, breaking peacetime records for the public finances. This compares with an official forecast for the deficit of £55bn presented by the Chancellor just prior to the start of the financial year last March, admittedly together with the first in a series of mini-fiscal announcements that saw spending soar to tackle the pandemic at the same time as tax revenues collapsed.
Work has officially begun on the £1bn A66 trans-Pennine upgrade.
A Highways England project announcement reveals that ground investigations have begun.
The update adds: “Much of this work involves testing the different types of ground conditions along the route including soil types and groundwater monitoring.
“We’re using ground penetrating radar and have up to ten crews operating from two site compounds on the A66, drilling approximately 300 boreholes and digging 300 inspection pits to collect the information.”
It adds: “These ground investigations will help us to refine the designs of the several new bypasses and upgrades of the existing road as part of the £1 billion A66 Trans-Pennine project.