The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has confirmed that 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 that 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.
Image: 12 NIC infrastructure reports published April 2020 to March 2021
The Commission’s newly-published Corporate Plan 2021-24 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 Commission’s proposals for the strategic themes and main priorities it intends to explore in the next Assessment.
The NIC will then undertake wide engagement on these topics, supplemented by a range of data collection and analysis to inform its final report and recommendations to the Government in 2023. The Corporate Plan notes that this will include considering potential scenarios for long term behaviour change as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Commission is planning future engagement with industry bodies, business, not for profit organisations and the general public in its efforts to capture a broad picture of the country’s infrastructure needs for 2050 and the measures needed to address them.
The whole process will be supported by expert panels of industry specialists, academics and regulators who will assess and challenge the Commission’s emerging thinking. Members of the three new expert panels – on Net Zero, Levelling Up and Climate Resilience – have also been announced.
The Commission has established three expert advisory panels to support the Commission in the run up to the second National Infrastructure Assessment – one on levelling up, one on net zero, and one on climate resilience.
These will meet regularly until the second National Infrastructure Assessment is published in 2023.
Ofwat's Interim Chief Executive David Black, Caroline Douglass, Executive Director for Flood and Coastal Risk Management at the Environment Agency and Jean Spencer, Independent Chair, National Water Resources Framework Senior Steering Group have all been appointed to the Climate Resilience expert panel.
Sir John Armitt, Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, said:
“The first National Infrastructure Assessment heavily influenced government’s recent National Infrastructure Strategy and has received wide international interest. As we embark on preparing the next Assessment we will build on the broad approach to engagement we undertook for the first such report, and of course bear in mind developments in the policy and technological landscape since 2018, as well as the potential long term impacts of Covid-19.
“The Commissioners and secretariat are eager to begin the process to help ensure the UK’s infrastructure can be ready to support our society and economy in 2050 and beyond.”
Producing a National Infrastructure Assessment every five years is one of the Commission’s core responsibilities set out in its Charter with government, and its first such report, published in 2018, heavily influenced the government’s recent National Infrastructure Strategy.
Government has adopted, or partially adopted, 80 per cent of the Commission’s extensive recommendations, including steps to introduce more renewable energy sources onto the electricity grid, a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and the creation of a national infrastructure bank.
Other areas where the Commission has helped shape government policy since its first Assessment are the subsidisation of connecting the hardest to reach 20% of UK premises to gigabit broadband, and increased funding for flood resilience.
The Commission’s remit covers all sectors of economic infrastructure: energy, transport, water and wastewater (drainage and sewerage), waste, flood risk management and digital communications - the NIC published 12 infrastructure reports and papers from April 2020 to March 2021.
Click here to download the NIC Corporate Plan 2021-24
Sign In
