The Chief Secretary to the Treasury convened the first meeting of the Strategic Engagement Forum to hold government departments to account for delivery of the projects outlined in the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP).
The Strategic Engagement Forum provides us with a much needed platform to unite all the key players in the NIP – from the delivery supply chain, investors, asset owners, managers and regulators, to infrastructure end users – to not only discuss solutions, but also drive them forward.”
Nick Baveystock, ICE Director General
Delivering the infrastructure plan
The meeting brought together 30 senior representatives of the construction industry, the investment world and asset owners to start the process of understanding the barriers to delivering the NIP and how to remove them.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander commented in his concluding remarks that Government and industry have a shared understanding of the role of infrastructure in economic growth, the need to get the balance right between short and long term financing, and for planning and regulatory certainty.
ICE and the SEF
ICE continues to work with its partners in the Infrastructure Alliance (ACE, CECA, and CPA) to bring industry and government together to tackle these issues.
The Strategic Engagement Forum (SEF) was announced by Mr Alexander at an Infrastructure Alliance fringe event at the Liberal Democrat party conference in September.
ICE Director General Nick Baveystock, who will be a future co-chair of the forum, praised its role in transforming the NIP "from a brochure into reality".