REPORT: Angus Leslie Melville, 3 February 2012

The Infrastructure Forum – growing gains

Three years old and The Infrastructure Forum is looking to take its place on the UK and European infra scene in its bid to become the national infra hub…

Since its launch in 2009, The Infrastructure Forum has been garnering interest as it takes on a wider remit – emerging as a player in the political arena – seeking to become the UK infra industry hub.

It was set up by Whitehall think tank European Policy Forum [est. 1992] and now – after having been operational for 3 years – is emerging from [relative] obscurity to take its place on the UK infra scene.

One of its key goals is to influence UK government and EU policy to drive on investment into infrastructure.

Graham Mather, president of The Infrastructure Forum, says: "The UK infrastructure picture has now moved from a backwater into government growth agenda and – as a result – policy issues around it will become more significant.

"The insight that led us to start this forum in 2009 is now becoming a major opportunity to contribute to the options available for policy – to float new and better ideas."

There has been some recent media coverage of The Infrastructure Forum that suggested a lobby group had just been launched. In fact, a special interest lobby group could not be further from the truth and it's been around since 2009.

The Infrastructure Forum started by representing regulated utilities and now plans to increase its sphere of influence as infra rises up the political agenda thanks to the Coalition Government's National Infrastructure Plan.

Mather says The Infrastructure Forum's goal is to forward "highest-quality ideas" from specialist economists and academics creating policy papers and hosting summits.

"When we were designing The Infrastructure Forum, we realised it could contribute on a wider footing, that it would need a broader mix," says Mather.

"The infrastructure area has been under-think-tanked. It has lacked the network of idea factories and think tank units that you find in other areas. It is rather astonishing how under-weight it has been in that area."

Mather put this shortfall down to the nature of the sector and the previous lack of standing in UK national policy.

"Short-term we would like to follow up the budget by contributing to the key infrastructure tasks," says Mather. "One of these is the establishment of a viable link for pension funds to link into infrastructure financing.

"The second is the post-PFI design of a system that corrects the bugs which seem to have developed in PFI, but preserves the enormous role it has played in building social infrastructure.

"The continuing difficulties over NIMBY-ism and the planning system require some work. One area we would like to contribute to over the summer is the discretion of compensating local communities for big projects.

"There have been attempts through the Localism Bill and recent legislative changes to make it more attractive to communities to support infrastructure projects, but they don't seem to be fully working. We would like to examine that closely."

Richard Threlfall – UK head of infrastructure, building and construction at KPMG – says: "A fundamental point in all this is that the forum is not specifically PPP focussed. The industry needs to move beyond that.

"It covers all aspects of infrastructure planning, promotion, development, operation, maintenance and financing – in all sectors – from both public and private sector perspectives.

"I am passionate about making The Infrastructure Forum work because infrastructure is the biggest issue facing the UK and we need an organisation where we can debate and share understanding about how we can best invest in the country's future."