VGI0002

Written evidence submitted by The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

Introduction

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is a 95,000-strong global membership organisation with over 200 years of history.

It is a centre of engineering excellence, qualifying engineers and helping them maintain lifelong competence, assuring society that the infrastructure they create is safe, dependable and well designed.

Its network of experts offers trusted, impartial advice to politicians and decision makers on how to build and adapt infrastructure to create a more sustainable world.

This submission responds to all three subject areas outlined by this inquiry.

Examples of best practice in generating economic, social or environmental value

Planning infrastructure strategically can unlock value for the economy, society, and the environment. Setting up a robust strategic planning process enables governments to clearly identify their needs, allowing them to set up infrastructure pipelines they need to deliver on them both now and in the future.

The Enabling Better Infrastructure (EBI) programme convened by the Institution of Civil Engineers works with governments to deliver value from investments in major infrastructure programmes by helping them strengthen their strategic planning process.

To do this, the programme brings together independent specialists with deep, wide-ranging experience to support governments in putting EBI's 8 guiding principles for improving strategic planning into practice. The programme also showcases examples embodying best practice in generating economic, social, and environmental value. Relevant case studies are highlighted below and across the other subject areas of this inquiry.

Malaysia embodies Principle 1 of the EBI 8 principles which outlines the need for a clear vision with strong government and country buy-in.[1] As part of their national plan, called the ‘Malaysia Plan’, Malaysia sets out a clear vision of the economic, social, and environmental outcomes they want to achieve over the long term, which they then use to streamline buy-in from the whole of government and the country.

Malaysia produced its first development plan in the 1950s and continues to produce one every five years. Over its succession of Malaysia Plans, the country has delivered value from government investment in major programs by achieving consistent economic growth.[2]

A key strength of Malaysia’s ever-evolving plan-based approach is that it remains on top of its economic, social, and environmental needs. At present, inclusivity and connectivity of rural areas (transport and basic services) are identified as key priority areas. This has been picked up as a key priority in the most recent plan, the Malaysia 12th Plan, where the country seeks to redress the unequal distribution of economic growth and opportunity.[3]

How to place such benefits at the heart of project design and delivery

The EBI programme has identified three key steps for setting up a strategic planning approach.[4] The steps set out a universal process which can be tailored to suit a country’s specific objectives, governance, and political context, where it can help place economic, social, and environmental benefits at the heart of infrastructure design and delivery.[5]

The three steps include:

1. Set objectives and guidelines
2. Assess infrastructure service needs and infrastructure performance
3. Develop an infrastructure strategy.

The following countries demonstrate international best practices in placing economic, social, and environmental benefits at the heart of design and delivery.

Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a baseline in Saint Lucia

Principle 2 of the EBI 8 principles outlines the use of sustainability measures such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a baseline for delivering wide-ranging benefits. Factoring the UN SDGS and their associated targets into the strategic planning ensures a country’s objectives deliver economic, social, and environmental outcomes. It also ensures infrastructure delivers on wider themes such as inclusivity, gender and equity.

Saint Lucia used the UN SDGs as a baseline for its national infrastructure assessment to ensure it met the country’s national priorities. Selecting the UN SDGS as part of the baseline is part of Step 1 outlined above, allowing the country to set up an integrated approach to delivering on energy, water supply, wastewater, and solid waste.[6]

Refining cost-benefits in Australia

Principle 5 of the EBI 8 principles supports refinements to cost-benefit analysis to account for all environmental, social and governance impacts at national and regional tiers of government. This ensures impacts are identified upfront, enabling necessary mitigation efforts to be put in place. The measures used for the cost-benefit analysis should be refined to ensure they adequately capture the non-monetary values.

Australia’s revised economic appraisal includes non-monetised infrastructure impacts, including cultural and indigenous values. The appraisal formed a critical baseline for assessing the wide-ranging effects of infrastructure decisions, where Australia can take steps to quantify, but not monetise, cultural or heritage impacts, indigenous values, and biodiversity, among other values.[7]

How to review and evaluate delivery

Strategic infrastructure planning is not a one-off activity. Planning infrastructure forms part of a regular process of reflection and review, where governments need to continually assess service needs and translate these into tangible programmes for delivering on them.[8]

Principle 8 of the EBI 8 principles encourages governments to ensure suitable structures are in place to support the meaningful use of data. This includes setting aside the necessary resources for data gathering and ensuring it can be hosted and accessed effectively.[9] It also supports the monitoring and evaluation needed to regularly assess infrastructure needs and conditions.

Wales has developed wellness goals as a baseline for measuring progress made on infrastructure. The country has six wellness goals, focusing on resilience, social wellbeing, inclusion and prosperity[10]. Setting out clear areas for monitoring and review supports regular review and an evaluation of delivery.

In general, wider findings of the ICE have indicated that more weight should also be attached to the whole-life benefits of projects and programmes and the role of improved interconnectivity through enhanced infrastructure investment instead of focusing on achieving the lowest capital cost in delivery.

There must also be more emphasis on defining infrastructure value in social and economic terms. In YouGov polling commissioned by the ICE, the most important infrastructure project success metric for the public is to provide benefits to communities.[11] Just 3% said that the most important factor is the project's overall cost.

In addition, 68% of the public agreed that they wanted politicians to tell the public more about the benefits of major infrastructure projects rather than the costs. This rose to 74% for over 55s.

Strong institutions and clear policies

In a UK context, the government and the industry have made important strides in recent years in improving infrastructure delivery of major capital projects, notably the development of the Construction Playbook and the refresh of the Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) programme.

This means that many of the tools and approaches needed to embed sustainable outcomes while delivering projects at the pace and scale required exist. However, they must be better enforced.

To accelerate delivery, the government should focus on ensuring project compliance with the Construction Playbook and setting hard dates after which Construction Playbook non-compliant contracts are no longer allowed. This will signal intent that the government is serious about driving change in the construction industry to improve how things are done. 

The Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) requires further backing to ensure its mandate can be taken seriously. This includes regular (and public) reporting on progress with Playbook implementation, client and project adoption, and benefits realisation.

Whilst the IPA can ask departments to ‘comply or explain’ with the Construction Playbook and mandate Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) attendance, currently, it lacks the authority to implement key principles such as these to improve delivery for major projects.

March 2024