National Infrastructure Commission

This week’s appointment of Lord Adonis, the former Labour Transport Secretary, to chair a new National Infrastructure Commission has broadly been welcomed by sector commentators but there are concerns that the commission may become little more than a talking shop and fail to deliver major projects swiftly.

Lord Adonis said: “Without big improvements to its transport and energy systems, Britain will grind to a halt. Major infrastructure projects like Crossrail span governments and parliaments. I hope it will be possible to forge a wide measure of agreement, across society and politics, on key infrastructure requirements for the next 20 to 30 years.”

The new commission demonstrates that transport infrastructure is recognised by Government as vital to UK economic growth. However, the next step must be development of a National Transport Strategy.