How the Infrastructure Client Group is helping the UK transform project delivery

The Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) has worked hard over the past 12 months to address the UK’s sluggish progress towards key national infrastructure goals.

Boosting the sector’s productivity and reducing carbon emissions towards net zero are just two of these key targets.

The ICG has come up with several solutions to achieve this, which feature highly in the group’s first annual report.

This publication coincides with a new agenda in Westminster to build towards a greener future at pace.

What is the ICG?

Established in 2010, the ICG brings together the UK’s most progressive economic infrastructure clients in partnership with the government and industry.

The group’s main aim is to accelerate the alignment and improvement of infrastructure delivery and development for the benefit of society, the economy and the environment.

“The ICG has always been a force for good,” explains its chair, Jason Tucker, in the report’s foreword.

“It has served as a homework-sharing club, in which members can benchmark themselves against each other, and as a focal point for engagement with stakeholders in government and the supply chain.”

The ICG’s work focuses on four areas where infrastructure clients can make the biggest positive impact:

• decarbonising infrastructure;
• making the best use of data and the latest digital tech;
• improving infrastructure productivity; and
• developing Project 13 – a delivery model under which owners, partners, advisers and suppliers work in a more integrated, collaborative way than the norm.

Key developments in 2024

The group’s work to make the world of infrastructure a better place has resulted in several outputs.

This year, these have ranged from its Concrete Decarbonisation Accelerator programme to a data integration toolkit.

The ICG has been busy implementing Project 13 more widely and developing a standard on infrastructure productivity.

It has also been addressing barriers to future supply-chain resilience and readiness – a key concern for every member.

The group has refreshed its membership structure to offer three tiers: full membership, associate membership and supply-chain affiliation.

And, it opened its doors to social infrastructure clients for the first time.

Plans for next year

In 2025, the ICG is to relaunch a group focused on health, safety and wellbeing.

It will cover best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion too, recognising the need to attract a wider demographic to the sector and the key role that clients can play in recruitment.

“This report reflects a vibrant community that is transforming infrastructure delivery. The past year has been extremely productive for the ICG,” writes Tucker, who is also Anglian Water’s director of strategic delivery and commercial assurance.

“The plans we have in place for next year will ensure that we can continue to provide value for members and, ultimately, improve our world of infrastructure.”

The ICG’s task groups

The bulk of the annual report explores the work of the ICG’s four task groups, as documented by their respective chairs:

• Rachel Skinner, Infrastructure Carbon Task Group;
• Mark Enzer, Data and Digital Task Group;
• Ed McCann, Productivity Task Group; and
• Dale Evans, Project 13.

Underpinning each activity is a shared desire to improve the sector.

As the report’s executive summary notes: “The solutions that the ICG has developed over the past year will be invaluable in realising the nation’s ambitions.

“With plenty more plans afoot, the value that is created when our members join forces has never been clearer.”