National Infrastructure Commission Annual Monitoring Report 2021

Summary

This report sets out the priorities that need to be addressed over the next year to start turning ambitions into reality. A clear roadmap for delivering charging infrastructure is needed to enable a ban on the sale on new petrol or diesel cars within the next decade, for instance; and a workable plan for ensuring the hardest to reach homes and businesses get the benefits of high capacity broadband.

The National Infrastructure Commissionion also remain of the view that major, long term investment is needed in urban public transport outside London if we are to tackle congestion in some of our largest cities and stimulate economic growth.

In offering these proposed next steps they acknowledge the uncertain backdrop caused by one of the worst economic shocks in a century. The Commission is exploring different scenarios for the potential long term behaviour patterns that may follow the Covid-19 pandemic and influence demand for and use of infrastructure.

This work will help inform the work on NIC’s second National Infrastructure Assessment, due to be published in 2023.In the shorter term, when it comes to infrastructure, government’s priority for the coming year must be to set out the policy levers and delivery plans with clear milestones that are needed to ensure tangible progress. 2020’s policy statements set the bar high: 2021 must be a year of turning policy goals into delivery.