Joined-up Infrastructure

The larger the project the more infrastructure is required – not an unsurprising statement, but what is surprising is the way it is delivered: developers need to engage with numerous bodies and agencies to deliver the infrastructure. A complex, ebergy sapping time consuming combination of various county or unitary departments, local planning authority, parish council and Integrated Care Board, together with Department for Education and possibly Homes England and Highways UK.

There is a little or no collaboration, with discussions being carried out in isolation, missing obvious opportunities.

Why not combine some or all of the infrastructure? Academies and health centres are commercial enterprises which are always looking for new income streams, and like to be seen as the focus of the community: give community and neighbourhood facilities to them, give a school a library to run, the retail units, even the health centre.

Combining infrastructure will reduce capital outlay as it is cheaper to build a complex with multiple functions than individual facilities. Likewise, the running costs will be lower and less complex as a multi-function facility will have economies of scale with individual suppliers for various elements, such as building services, security, cleaning, etc., as opposed to duplicated suppliers for each of the individual facilities.

Considering these issues at the outset of a project would allow combined infrastructure. It would also address and go some way to solve legacy and stewardship issues, often left too late in the project.