A Golden Opportunity? Delivering future-fit infrastructure for the UK through enhanced sustainability skills outlines how the UK is in the early stages of what has been called a new "golden age of infrastructure" following the publication of the National Infrastructure and Construction pipeline.
This covers a portfolio of 720 projects totalling £500bn of public and private spend. If these projects are planned and executed with long-term sustainability at their heart, they have the power to drive economic growth, boost productivity and improve quality of life. However, the success of the pipeline is currently “precarious” due to the impacts of Brexit and the predicted loss of 47% of skilled EU workers, an ongoing labour crunch and a skills deficit that must be plugged – urgently.
New IEMA report published today outlines the critical challenges and exciting opportunities of the new Golden Age of Infrastructure
The report outlines that there are five central challenges facing developers and contractors:
More importantly there is great potential to deliver future-fit infrastructure supported by enhanced sustainability skills which pave the way for successful transition to a sustainable economy, leave a legacy of skills and improved practice, positively transform communities and regions and build a truly ‘agile’ infrastructure.
As part of urgent steps to tackle the skills gap IEMA is working in partnership with other several professional bodies to forge a new Infrastructure Sustainability Skills Charter and further its work on developing a Sustainability Passport Scheme to ensure transferability and consistency of skills as workers move between clients and projects.
Tim Balcon says that working together is key to tackling the issues outlined in IEMA’s report: “Alliance between professions, project leaders, education and training bodies and the Government is the only way to achieve the result the UK needs, and IEMA and our members are excited to be spearheading this collaboration”.
Download the report here
