Searching for a silver lining in a year of infrastructure inertia
Ed Evans, director of Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Wales Cymru, reflects on why 2017 was a disappointing year for infrastructure projects in Wales
I’M a pretty much a glass-half-full person, so it’s not like me to be leading with such a downbeat note, but for those of us involved in the infrastructure sector in Wales, 2017 was a much more disappointing year than we had anticipated.
Yet again some of the major infrastructure projects we had been promised failed to materialise. Combined with continuing public-sector austerity measures, it’s been a challenge for many to find “silver linings”.
I could have written much of this column 12 months ago because we were waiting for the same things then. Most noticeably, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has not visibly moved forward at all in the past year, despite the Hendry Review’s positive appraisal.
The UK Government appears locked in the same consideration process it has been for months. It seems the sticking points still involve strike price and, quite frankly, the ambition to do something on a large scale, to do it differently and to do it with a much broader view of the opportunities it would create.
There has also been disappointment over the UK Government’s decisions in relation to transport infrastructure. No matter how it has been dressed up, the decision not to electrify the line between Cardiff and Swansea remains a bitter pill to swallow. It dents the civil engineering industry’s confidence in promises that are made and means that when good news does follow – such as station improvements at Cardiff Central and Swansea, or improving Cardiff to Severn Tunnel Junction Relief Lines – then the industry can be excused for greeting such commitments with a raised eyebrow.
These unambitious substitutes are hardly groundbreaking in a year when Network Rail admitted to spending less than 2% of its budget on Wales. As several politicians have pointed out, at the close of 2017 Wales, Moldova and Albania are the only remaining nations in Europe without a mile of electrified rail.
The same charge of lack of ambition might also be levelled at the Welsh Government too. The National Infrastructure Commission we were promised has still not arrived. We’ve been through the campaigning bit to get political consensus, we’ve inputted to the Welsh Government’s consultation on the shape of a commission in 2016 and the excellent report of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, and we received the Government’s response back in January. But since then there’s been silence, and not even the adverts for a chairperson were placed in the autumn as suggested. This isn’t just important for the sector, it’s essential to building a better Wales.
Similarly, the shelving of the Circuit of Wales after a tortuous decision-making process can hardly be said to have filled the industry with confidence. Forgive us, therefore, if we still don’t wholly believe the M4 Relief Road will actually be built, since the project remains without consensus and is frequently the subject of political “noises off”.
In short, the infrastructure sector needs governments at both ends of the M4 to say what they mean and mean what they say. Our faith in politics is being tested at the very time we should be working ever more closely together.
We know that every £1 spent on infrastructure projects directly boosts GDP by £1.30, with indirect effects up to £2.84 per pound spent. The multiplier effect is enormous. Indeed, the civil engineering industry represents about 7% of Wales’ GVA. Contrast that with the agriculture sector, which contributes less than 1%, or finance and insurance at less than 4%. We employ about 130,000 people in Wales. Contrast that with Tata Steel, who employ about 8,500 people, and Airbus at about 4,000. We are a big player and should be valued far more than we are.
We are told of great economic opportunities ahead of us in Wales. Words such as regeneration, catalyst, transformation are bandied about daily. City Deals, Growth Deals, City Regions – not a day goes by without mention of another major project, just over the horizon, which, if we get it right, will take us to Nirvana. There is a profound sense of exasperation at being told big chances are just months away, just around the corner or just at the end of the next consultation or review. If the Welsh Government is serious about a new “economic contract” between public and private sectors as part of their new Economic Action Plan, they need to start “walking the walk”. And the same can be said for the UK Government’s “Modern Industrial Strategy”. We’ve had enough good intentions – the time for action is long overdue!
Let’s hope that in 2018 at least a few promises actually materialise.