Based on extensive research and expert input from ICE members, State of the Nation has been the institution’s flagship report since 2002.
This annual industry assessment aims to stimulate debate and highlight actions that the ICE believes its members could take to improve the nation’s infrastructure.
Past reports have focused on topics such as how to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, improve the industry’s productivity and better manage the risks of climate change.
State of the Nation: Infrastructure in 2025
This year’s publication addresses the UK’s key infrastructure problems across the transport, energy and water sectors, highlighting innovative engineering techniques and technologies that could help to solve them.
The most pressing issue it reveals is that critical parts of the road network, particularly bridges, are “perhaps not as safe as the public thinks, while some structures should have usage restrictions but don’t”.
If the extent of the safety risks posed by these creaking assets were more widely known, “the government would have to act”, according to the transport experts consulted in the making of this report.
With a vital role to play in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), civil engineers can address some of the biggest challenges facing the water, energy and transport sectors, such as those covered in the UK National Infrastructure Commission’s Second National Infrastructure Assessment.
This report harnesses the expertise of the ICE’s global membership to present a clear view of how the profession can help the UK to keep its SDG pledges by providing affordable and resilient solutions in the face of the climate crisis.
Improving infrastructure productivity means becoming more effective and more efficient. Effectiveness involves selecting the right projects and making optimal design choices, while efficiency focuses on minimising waste.
This report stresses the importance of tackling various forms of waste while using as few of the planet’s precious non-renewable resources as possible. It also highlights the link between increasing productivity and meeting the challenges posed by the climate crisis, urging civil engineers to use the most sustainable practices available at all points in the infrastructure lifecycle.
Infrastructure is responsible for more than half of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. With the climate crisis showing every sign of worsening, the whole sector must act urgently to reduce its colossal carbon footprint.
This report sets out six measures that all civil engineers can and must take, calling on them to treat the situation like the emergency it is. At their heart is the clear need for the profession to innovate with decarbonisation as its main priority and to influence others to follow its example.
If the UK is to stand any chance of hitting its 2050 net zero target, it must transform how its infrastructure is delivered and managed, given the sector’s huge carbon impact.
This report suggests 10 ways to surmount the policy barriers to doing this that the Climate Change Committee identified in its 2019 advice to the government. Recommendations include updating the Treasury’s Green Book, unlocking the market for net zero technologies via the Contracts for Difference scheme and establishing a national investment bank with a sustainability mandate.
The need to build many more homes in the UK is widely accepted, but much scope remains in the system to take a more strategic approach to delivering the vital infrastructure that enables and sustains new housing developments.
This report suggests a package of measures to improve how such infrastructure serves major home-building projects. One key recommendation is that the National Infrastructure Commission should have its charter amended to include housing alongside economic infrastructure, thereby enabling more integrated and evidence-based long-term planning across the board.
The continuing adequacy of infrastructure provision in the UK depends greatly on the supply of sufficient finance. This report explores opportunities to improve the flow of investment (both public and private) and discusses funding mechanisms to ensure that high-performing assets will be viable long into the future.
Four of its eight recommendations, aimed at the government, suggest sector-specific interventions to help ensure clear and sustainable lines of finance. The other four relate to overarching government policy decisions that could have a material effect on future investment.
Further information
If you’d like to know more about the ICE’s State of the Nation reports, please get in touch.