The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) has welcomed the Competition and Markets Authority’s civil engineering market study into the road and rail sector, saying it provides a clear and practical route to improving how the UK plans, procures and delivers major road and rail infrastructure.

With public spending on road and rail infrastructure standing at around £19bn a year, the study reinforces the need for a more strategic and consistent approach to the market. High costs, project overruns, variable quality and weak innovation are not inevitable. They are the result of fragmented procurement, short-term funding cycles, inconsistent standards and poor risk allocation across the system.

Today’s report sets out a practical package of reforms that would improve market confidence, strengthen capability across public authorities and create better conditions for firms to invest, scale and innovate. In particular, it recognises the importance of stronger strategic oversight, greater pipeline certainty, wider adoption of best-practice procurement and faster, more proportionate approvals processes for innovation.

ACE's Policy Director, Marie-Claude Hemming, said: “This is an important piece of work from the CMA and it should be treated as a serious opportunity for reform. The report reflects many of the concerns our members have raised for some time about the way the civil engineering market is structured and how that affects cost, delivery and innovation.

“What matters now is implementation. If government can continue to provide clearer long-term direction, strengthen procurement capability and remove unnecessary barriers to innovation, our sector will be better placed to deliver the infrastructure the country needs and the long-term value the public expects.

“To this end, ACE is calling on government and its delivery bodies to move quickly from diagnosis to delivery, with clear ownership and timescales for reform. That includes putting in place multi-year funding settlements, building on the infrastructure pipeline, improving procurement capability across public authorities, standardising processes where appropriate and creating a regulatory environment that supports innovation and SME participation rather than slowing it down.

“We want to work with government, clients and partners across the supply chain to support the implementation of the CMA’s recommendations and help build a more efficient, competitive and innovative civil engineering market once and for all.”

Click here to read the report.