The Centre for Policy Studies has published a report detailing a “comprehensive breakdown” of eight key factors driving up Britain’s infrastructure costs, alongside 40 recommendations of how to drive them back down.

Among the factors cited as increasing the costs of infrastructure, the report details excessive environmental impact assessments and a longer planning process.

The report, Lowering Infrastructure Costs, has identified eight interconnected factors which raise Britain’s infrastructure costs unreasonably high:

• A planning process that has grown longer and more expensive, with average decision timings rising from 2.6 years in 2012 to 4.2 years in 2021
• Environmental impact assessments have grown from under 400 pages for the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990s to nearly 18,000 pages for a 3.3 mile railway line to Portishead
• Judicial review is encouraged because of an international treaty, the Aarhus Convention, and is increasing, with legal challenges rising from around one per year between 2008 and 2018 to four per year between 2019 and 2024, with National Highways estimating that a single challenge can add more than £120m to project costs
• Responsibility for funding projects sits with the Treasury – carrying significant political risk – but with limited ability to control costs once money is committed
• Procurement focuses excessively on lowest cost and social value rather than value for money
• Regulations are set by quangos and arms-length bodies with no stake in cost outcomes
• A civil service without sufficient in-house technical expertise to effectively manage projects. The report highlights findings which show the Department for Transport – where many major infrastructure projects sit – has the second highest staff turnover of any Whitehall department
• The centralisation of decision-making, meaning mayors and local authorities lack the power and incentive to deliver the infrastructure their communities need

The report sets out a comprehensive programme of reform, including amendments to streamline the planning process and make Development Consent Orders a genuine one-stop shop; rebalancing environmental regulations to focus on positive outcomes rather than defensive paperwork; raising cost caps for unsuccessful judicial review claimants; devolving funding and approval powers to metro mayors; reforming procurement to reward value for money and past performance; challenging unnecessary standards; rebuilding in-house engineering capacity within the civil service and devolving Transport and Works Act Order approvals to elected regional mayors.

CPS head of housing and infrastructure and report author Ben Hopkinson said: “Without reform, Britain will continue to spend vast sums on infrastructure while receiving comparatively little in return, and only that after significant delay.

“Our neighbours do not experience the same problems, there are ways to deliver the infrastructure a country needs quickly and efficiently, without enormous cost to the taxpayer. The recommendations I’ve outlined would help speed up the process of delivering new infrastructure significantly, for less than we currently spend, and allow the economy to unlock the wider benefits of better public transport, greater airport capacity, and more roads.”

Click here to read the full report.