Co-Leader of Energy Practice Provides Comments to ‘New Civil Engineer’ on Need for Local Approach to Infrastructure

London Partner and Co-Leader of Energy, Environment & Infrastructure Mark Richards was quoted extensively Aug. 6 by magazine New Civil Engineer following the UK government releasing £1.3 billion to fund more than 300 “shovel-ready” projects. Richards called for a more local approach to meet both the post-COVID recovery and the government’s levelling-up agenda. “Post global financial crisis infrastructure spending was characterised by large ‘grand projects’ delivered centrally or largely benefitting the South East of England, projects such as Crossrail, Olympics, Tideway Tunnel or HS2,” he said. “This approach of focusing on larger infrastructure projects in and around London does not sit well with the current government’s political objectives to ‘level-up’ and post global financial crisis thinking of the use of ‘shovel ready’ projects as economic stimulus….Large infrastructure projects are also rarely ‘shovel-ready’ for many months – or even years – therefore defeating any immediate six to nine month stimulus benefits. There are many suitable candidates to create economic stimulus and there could be stimulus benefits focusing on local and regional spending on public sector housing and municipal building energy and water efficiency schemes, including solar rooftop installation, ground heat pumps and small-scale battery storage.” Richards calls for a high-level scrutiny of projects planned to boost post-COVID recovery to ensure they are not just “shovel ready” but also “shovel worthy.” The above was first published by EMAP, who is the source and owner of the content.