The National Infrastructure Commission is calling on the Government to put in place a long-term strategy to deliver a nationwide standard of flood resilience by 2050 - with funding for flood risk management increasing significantly over the coming decades.

The call is among a range of recommendations the Commission has made in the first-ever National Infrastructure Assessment published today on how the identified infrastructure needs and priorities of the country should be addressed.

The Government will now be required to formally respond to the NIC recommendations no more than a year after publication, and wherever possible within six months.

Issues addressed in the wide-ranging Assessment include:

• Low carbon energy – making a switch to low-carbon and renewable sources for both the country’s power and heating, combined with a move towards electric vehicles, would mean the customer of 2050 would pay the same in real terms for their energy as today
• Digital technology – that the Government devise a National Broadband Plan by Spring 2019, to deliver full fibre connections across the whole of the country, including those in rural areas – this should ensure that the technology is available to 15 million homes and businesses by 2025, 25 million by 2030, and all homes and businesses by 2033
• The future for the nation’s roads – that the Government work with councils and private companies to deliver a national network of charging points for electric vehicles and ensures that the impacts of connected and autonomous vehicles are taken into account when planning for the next rail control period and road investment strategy;
• Encouraging growth of cities – that Metro Mayors and city leaders develop and implement long-term strategies for transport, employment and housing in their areas, to support economic growth, with new powers and devolved infrastructure budgets.
• The National Infrastructure Assessment’s spending plans include funding for projects including Crossrail 2 in London, and Northern Powerhouse Rail linking the major Northern cities, and recommends a boost in funding for major cities totalling £43 billion to 2040, with cities given stable five-year budgets, starting in 2021;
• Tackling floods – that the Government should put in place a long-term strategy to deliver a nationwide standard of flood resilience by 2050 with funding for flood risk management increasing significantly over the coming decades
• Cutting waste – that new national rules for what can and cannot be recycled be introduced, with restrictions on the hardest-to-recycle plastics, aimed at increasing rates and reducing the amount of plastics going to incinerators. This would also mean that all food waste is separated making it available to create biogas, so it can be used to heat people’s homes and potentially as a transport fuel

Ten years on from Pitt Review, Government still needs to do more on flood protection

Commenting on the NIC recommendations for reducing the risks of drought and flooding, Commissioner Dame Kate Barker DBE said:

“Our National Infrastructure Assessment makes clear the need for a nationwide flood resilience standard by 2050, which will require significant investment over the coming decades.

“Ten years on from the Pitt Review, we still need to do more to give households and businesses the confidence that their communities are being protected – our recommendation sets out the actions we should take.”

The Commission published its recommendations on water supplies in Preparing for a Drier Future: England’s water infrastructure needs in April this year. This was published in advance so that water companies and regulators can take account of it in the business plans currently being finalised for the upcoming 2020-2025 AMP7 investment programme. It set out the need for a twin-track approach both of additional infrastructure and encouraging a significant reduction in demand.

Britain has “golden opportunity” to switch to greener energy without increasing bills

Key finding from the NIA is that Britain has a “golden opportunity” to switch to greener ways of providing energy to homes and businesses without increasing bills – but only if Ministers act now to make the most of it.

Launching the Assessment, Chairman Sir John Armitt said it had long been assumed that a switch to greener sources for the country’s energy needs would mean a hit on people’s pockets. However, analysis for the Commission showed this would not necessarily be the case and that making the switch towards low-carbon and renewable sources for both the country’s power and heating, combined with a move towards electric vehicles, would mean the customer of 2050 would pay the same in real terms for their energy as today.

He warned this will only be possible if the right decisions are taken now by government. These include continuing to invest in low cost renewable technologies, such as wind and solar, so that these provide at least half the country’s generating capacity by 2030, as well as ramping up efforts to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s buildings and enabling a rapid switch to electric vehicles.

Sir John Armitt said:

“Whether for cooking, lighting, keeping homes warm or electric cars on the road, where the UK’s energy comes from will need to change radically over the coming decades if the UK is to meet its legally-binding climate change targets.

“If we act now we have a golden opportunity to make our country greener, and protect the money in the pockets of consumers long into the future – something few of us expected to be able to do.

“Ministers can seize this chance by investing in renewables and other low-carbon technologies so they become the main players in our energy system – something that was considered a pipedream as little as a decade ago. But they need to act now to realise the full potential of what can be achieved.”

The UK’s first-ever National Infrastructure Assessment, spans a range of sectors including the energy network, transport, digital technology, waste, flood management and water supplies.

NIA says minimum of 50 per cent of electricity should come from renewables in 2030

Currently, around 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and solar power – up from 12 per cent only five years ago. Today’s National Infrastructure Assessment recommends that the Government take steps to push this even further and ensures that a minimum of 50 per cent of electricity comes from renewables in 2030.

In the longer term, according to the NIC an energy system based on low cost renewables and the technologies required to balance them may prove cheaper than building further nuclear plants, as the cost of these technologies is far more likely to fall, and at a faster rate.

The Assessment is cautioning against a rush to agree government support for multiple new nuclear power stations, and proposes that after Hinkley Point C in Somerset the Government should agree support for only one more nuclear plant before 2025. This would give flexibility to move towards newer low-carbon energy sources in future, while at the same time maintaining the UK’s nuclear supply chain and skills base.

It also highlights the need to ensure the current pipeline of interconnectors, linking the UK to energy supply from abroad, is not affected by Britain’s leaving the European Union, and to aim for continuity with Euratom arrangements to enable the nuclear industry to continue operating after 29 March 2019.

The NIC says that established technologies like wind and solar power should be allowed to compete to deliver the overwhelming majority of the extra renewable electricity needed as overall demand increases, with measures to move them to the front of the queue for Government support;

The National Infrastructure Commission Chairman added:

“Whether it’s electric or driverless cars, new energy sources, tackling the risk of climate change or preparing for the newest and fastest broadband speeds, the issues we’ve been considering profoundly affect people’s everyday lives.

“The whole purpose of the UK’s first-ever National Infrastructure Assessment is to think beyond the technologies of today and to ensure we can make the most of future innovations.

“This is not some unaffordable wish-list of projects: it sets a clear direction for how to meet the country’s future infrastructure needs, and makes a realistic assessment of what can and should be delivered within the stated aim of Ministers for steady and continued investment over the coming years.

“I therefore look forward to the Government’s response to our report, and seeing how our recommendations can become reality.”

 Click here to download the NIC National Infrastructure Assessment