Danny Alexander to chair infrastructure committee

Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander is to chair a new cabinet committee on infrastructure, it was announced today, as the government published a detailed pipeline of 500 key construction projects.

The National Infrastructure Plan, published today, said the new cabinet committee will “will ensure that all parts of government play their part in tackling planning and regulatory delays and addressing key commercial and policy issues.”

The committee will focus on the top 40 “priority” infrastructure projects identified in the plan.

Separately, a 500-strong pipeline of infrastructure projects taken forward by the government has been published, including details for all schemes of intended start and completion dates, estimated costs (including a yearly breakdown of expenditure) and how it is being procured.

The industry has been calling for the publication of a full pipeline for a number of years, in order for it to be able to plan its level of resourcing more effectively. A pledge to publish a pipeline, made in the June Construction Strategy, was followed in July by a widely derided first draft.

However, Alasdair Reisner, director of external affairs at the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, said he was delighted by his initial viewing of the document, which he said could prove to be the single-most significant announcement of the day. He said: “We very much welcome the government delivering on its commitment to publish a full and detailed pipeline of its planned construction works.

“This provides much of the detail that has been requested in consultation with industry, and shows they have been listening to the construction sector’s views. We look forward to working with government to improve what already looks to be an excellent document.”

Andrew Stevenson, head of transport at Davis Langdon said: “It’s not just semantics.” The document is available to view here.