package to deal with those exceptional risks which the private sector is not able to cover at an affordable price. Flood defence: there are currently around 2.4 million homes and businesses at risk of flooding in England, and climate projections indicate that this number is likely to increase in the future. As a result, the Government is funding a GBP 2.3 billion 6-year capital programme which will deliver more than 1,500 schemes to mitigate this risk, as well as providing increased funding of GBP 700 million for flood defences and resilience. Housing and regeneration: the UK is facing an unprecedented shortage of affordable housing, due to underinvestment in the sector by successive governments. The NIDP sets out a range of measures designed to support large-scale housing supply and regeneration – by, for example, releasing public sector land for development, streamlining the planning process, and delivering additional infrastructure to support and facilitate new sites. The Government will add impetus to these efforts by directly commissioning several thousand new homes on public land, in a departure from the sector’s usual reliance on large private sector developers, and it has indicated that it will establish joint ventures with construction companies and financial partners to do this. Its Homes and Communities Agency will obtain outline planning permission on sites that it owns, and then look to enter into joint ventures with private partners. As projects are delivered, and returns made, the intention is that project equity will be released to be reinvested into other sites.
More generally, the Government is seeking to persuade construction companies to take a more focused approach to housebuilding, and to see it as an integral part of the wider infrastructure market in the UK. Social infrastructure: the Government is committing over GBP 48.6 billion to major capital investment in the education, health and prison sectors. Whilst most new schemes will be funded frompublic resources, the NIDP indicates that private finance will also be considered – via the PF2 procurement model (the successor to PFI) – where it offers value for money to do so. Devolution: the NIDP summarises a number of initiatives which are designed to transfer control over infrastructure investment and delivery to local regions. A key vehicle for this is the Devolution Deal . In return for additional funding and extra control over policies and budgets in transport and other areas, cities such as Manchester and Liverpool will elect their own mayors, in order to provide accountability for the exercise of these new powers, and to work with local or combined authorities, such as TfN.
Robert Meakin Partner, London T: +44 (0)20 7876 4249 E: robert.meakin@clydeco.com
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