Transforming Infrastructure Performance is a British government report on the UK

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

industry. Issued by the

Infrastructure and Projects Authority The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the United Kingdom government's centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA sits at the heart of government, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury His Majes ...

in December 2017, its aim is to improve productivity in the sector and make savings of £15 billion per year. It proposes to do this by increasing innovations like

off-site construction Offsite construction refers to the manufacturing, planning, design, fabrication, and assembly of building elements at a location other than their final installed location to support the rapid speed of, and efficient construction of a permanent str ...

and new digital technology, improving government procurement procedures, and improving integration and collaboration. It is seen as a welcome initiative by the industry, and early implementation of its aims has been incorporated into the water industry's 2019 price review. A follow-up report, Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030 was published on 13 September 2021 and, in combination with other documents, outlines UK government construction strategy through to 2030.

Aims

The British construction industry has been in a period of stagnating productivity, and the Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) report is seen as an opportunity to tackle this. Productivity in the rest of the UK economy has been improving at a greater rate than that in construction for some time. Research and development expenditure in that sector is reasonably high, but it has often been spent in an uncoordinated and unfocused way with poor returns. The existing business model of project-by-project transactional delivery has made cost the primary factor in determining the supply chain rather than a consideration of what is best for the project or client. The TIP report was issued by the British government's

(IPA) in December 2017 and outlined three key aims for the ten years following publication: *Ensuring investment is made in the "right" projects *Improving the construction sector's productivity *Maximising benefits of investment in infrastructure These aims require improvements in the planning, procurement and delivery of projects. The report recognises that significant improvement has been made in long-term strategic planning since the 2015 establishment of the

National Infrastructure Commission The National Infrastructure Commission is the executive agency responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK. Inaugurated in 2015, and established as an executive agency of HM Trea ...

and the 2016 issue of the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan. This includes switching major infrastructure bodies such as

Highways England National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all ...

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

HS2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

and the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and en ...

from annual budgets to multi-year spending plans. The government intends to save the industry £15 billion per year by implementing TIP. The programme was announced alongside details of new construction projects valued at £600 billion over the next 10 years.

Proposed delivery

The IPA was given responsibility for delivering TIP with oversight by

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

. Delivery would be supported by using the purchasing power of the government, implementing initiatives across all government departments and working closely with industry through the Construction Leadership Council, the Infrastructure Client Group and the

Construction Industry Training Board The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is the industry training board for the UK construction industry. History The CITB was established on 21 July 1964 by the Industrial Training (Construction Board) Order 1964,Explanatory Note to The I ...

. Priorities for the first two years following the report are: *Establishing benchmarking of current major project cost and performance in the UK, the

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation ...

and the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

*Expanding use of the cross-sector integration approach pioneered on the

Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

to other regional initiatives, such as the

Northern Powerhouse The Northern Powerhouse is a proposal to boost economic growth in the North of England by the 2010–15 coalition government and 2015–2016 Conservative government in the United Kingdom, particularly in the " Core Cities" of Hull, Mancheste ...

Midlands Engine The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in t ...

and

Thames Gateway Thames Gateway is a term applied to an area around the Thames Estuary in the context of discourse around regeneration and further urbanisation. The term was first coined by the UK government and applies to an area of land stretching east from ...

*Supporting the implementation of the

Crown Commercial Service The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. The CCS is responsible for managing the procurement of common goods and services, increasing savings for the taxpayer by centr ...

Procuring for Growth Balanced Scorecard *Supporting a move to

methods as announced in the

November 2017 United Kingdom budget The November 2017 United Kingdom budget was delivered by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 22 November 2017. It was Hammond's second as Chancellor of the Exchequer since being appointed to th ...

*Supporting implementation of the Construction Sector Deal to improve the level of innovation and skills in the industry *Driving the implementation of digital technology in the sector, such as through the Digital Built Britain programme and the Infrastructure Industry Innovation Platform, to build on recent examples of good practice in this field, such as the Highways England Smart Motorways programme *Focusing on the IPA's core role of advising ministers in planning and procurement of major projects, and refreshing the government's construction strategy in 2018 The IPA cautioned that the plan should not be seen as a means of driving down construction costs but rather that better whole life performance needed to be realised. A new benchmarking team will be established at the IPA to monitor the delivery of British infrastructure projects against global benchmarks. The report cites the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

' Project 13 as an example of how change can be driven in the industry. Project 13 seeks to alter the behaviour and processes of organisations to implement better assessment and incentivisation of productivity and to move from project-by-project delivery to more long-term and integrated approaches. One of its key aims is to improve collaboration in the industry. One of the IPA's predecessor organisations,

Infrastructure UK Infrastructure UK (IUK) was a division of HM Treasury within the Treasury's Public Services and Growth Directorate, which advised the UK government on the long-term infrastructure needs of the UK and provided commercial expertise to support major ...

, launched a similar Infrastructure Cost Review in 2010, which achieved its aims of saving £3 billion in infrastructure spending by 2015. The TIP initiative has been linked to a rewrite of the government's construction strategy, the current version of which is the Government Construction Strategy: 2016–2020.

Reception and implementation

There was a good reception for the report in the construction industry, though there was a desire for actual change to be implemented rather than for continual reviews and reports. Early adopters included

Ofwat The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, is the body responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. Ofwat's main statutory duties include protecting the interests of consumers, secu ...

, which implemented direct procurement—tendering projects for its whole lifecycle, including finance, design, build and operation, rather than just construction—in its 2019 price review. An earlier scheme to have adopted this was

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is a large private utility company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north Wil ...

's £4.2 billion

Thames Tideway Tunnel The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a combined sewer under construction running mostly under the tidal section (estuary) of the River Thames across Inner London to capture, store and convey almost all the raw sewage and rainwater that currently over ...

Constructing Excellence Constructing Excellence is a United Kingdom construction industry membership organisation created in 2003, the only such which draws its member organisations from across the industry supply chain, ranging from clients, through contractors and consu ...

, the sector-wide industry reform organisation, welcomed the report stating that it was a "positive step" for UK infrastructure and that improved collaboration would "achieve better performance through delivery, whole life asset performance and ultimately outcomes for customers". Andrew Jones, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said that the government would use its role as a client in 25% of all UK construction to implement the plan. He was keen that the industry reaps the benefits of off-site construction, which can reduce waste by 90% and speed up delivery by 60%. He cited examples of schools which could be completed in around 4 months, rather than in 12 months by traditional construction. Deputy Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt welcomed the report and the potential for investment to be made on new

High Speed 3 Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), sometimes referred to unofficially as High Speed 3, is a proposed major rail programme designed to substantially enhance the economic potential of the North of England. The phrase was adopted in 2014 for a project ...

and

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a proposed hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the ...

railways. However, he stated that the government needed to provide a clearly defined strategy for the coming decades and not just for the short-term. ''

New Civil Engineer ''New Civil Engineer'' is the monthly magazine for members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the UK chartered body that oversees the practice of civil engineering in the UK. First published in May 1972, it is today published by Metropol ...

'', the magazine of the Institution of Civil Engineers, stated that the industry needs to improve how it manages and releases data, particularly that related to productivity and risk assessment. It called for standardisation, transparency and better benchmarking of good performance to allow proper assessment against the TIP targets.

Follow-up 'roadmap'

On 13 September 2021, a follow-up report, ''Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030'', was published alongside the ''National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline'' forecasting £650bn investment in UK infrastructure over the next decade. The Roadmap describes itself (p.9) as the successor to the Government Construction Strategy, alongside the December 2020 ''Construction Playbook'' and the National Infrastructure Strategy.

References

{{Reflist Construction industry of the United Kingdom Economic development in the United Kingdom Reports of the United Kingdom government United Kingdom industrial planning policy