English’s infrastructure rollout

Finance Minister Bill English will today unveil plans to spend an additional $15 billion on infrastructure by 2025.

He expects the third Capital Intentions Plan will give industry the confidence to plan.

“The priority is to give the industry confidence that there is a pipeline out ahead of them,” he says. “And it is worth investing in collaborative processes — particularly investment in skills because they can see 10 years of work. That means we will get quality procurement and quality construction.”

The plan lists upcoming infrastructure projects across central government, local government and the private sector. It shows the estimated spend out to 2025 has increased by nearly $15 billion since last year. Central government’s share is up by $5 billion to $54.1 billion, local government by $7.6 billion to $54.7 billion and the private sector by $2.1 billion to $16.7 billion. Around $125 billion will be spent in New Zealand between 2012 and 2025 on infrastructure — the equivalent of 42 Auckland City Rail Links.

English says there are a number of future challenges facing infrastructure. These include having a number of ageing infrastructure networks that will need renewing amid affordability constraints.

“It’s going to be an exciting time because you’ve got what is generally regarded as some pure infrastructure — roads and waters — then at the same time you’ve got the Government setting out to overhaul its own large housing estate.

“That will be at scale, and both of these pipelines are 10 years long. A lot of this is about when dreams become intentions,” he says.