National Infrastructure Plan: Glenigan reveals top construction projects to watch

A total of 646 projects or programmes with a capital value of £50 million or more were outlined in the plan, 45% of which are already under construction.The funds are due to be ploughed into energy, transport, communications, and water projects and although there will be no new money coming from the public purse, it has created a focus for other investors such as the insurance industry, which says it will spend another £25 billion over the next five years.

Headline projects on Glenigan that have been impacted by NIP include:

• Gatwick Airport Rail Station (Glenigan Project ID: 14012821) – The government announced that it will contribute £50 million of funding towards the redevelopment of the Gatwick Gateway railway station at Gatwick Airport.
• A14 Road Improvement Scheme (Glenigan Project ID: 03131094) – The government has dropped plans for tolling on the new A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The £1.5 billion scheme will now be conventionally funded. The move is a complete U-turn for a government which, in its first Spending Review in 2010, ruled the scheme to be unaffordable.  Now construction is planned to start in 2016.
• River Thames Garden Bridge (Glenigan Project ID: 99442052) – The government will provide a £30 million contribution to support the construction of a new ‘garden bridge’ across the River Thames in London. This will supplement funding from Transport for London and private donations.
• A50 Uttoxeter Growth Corridor (Glenigan Project ID: 13394981)  – The government will provide funding to support improvements to the A50 around Uttoxeter, due to start in 2015-16 (subject to statutory procedures) to support local growth, jobs and housing; this project will be subject to the usual developer contributions.

Meanwhile, the government has agreed the terms of a UK Guarantees facility with the Greater London Authority to support up to £1 billion of borrowing for the construction of the London Underground Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station (Glenigan Project ID: 09362099), subject to a satisfactory Transport and Works Act order.

Also agreed are the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset (Glenigan Project ID:  01611123) and the Mersey Gateway (Glenigan Project ID: 97251650).

The UK Guarantees scheme was announced in July 2012 and heralded as a way that the government could help prevent delays to investment in UK infrastructure projects by effectively underwriting an element of risk.

In April 2013, the Drax Group announced that private funding for the conversion of their coal-fired power station to biomass would be the first project to be underpinned by the scheme (Glengian Project ID: 09264899).

For more information about the infrastructure sector, contact Suzy Riding at Glenigan on 01202 786721.

What do you think of the latest updates made to the National Infrastructure Plan? With no new money being invested in the plan, is the government simply using it to revive existing projects? Let us know your thoughts on our social media channels via the icons at the top of the screen.