To address the UK’s broken infrastructure delivery model, Arup argues for a new approach that prioritises locally led, outcome-focused projects and creative financing to better connect communities and support economic growth, says Andrew Nothstine.

Andy Burnham has already set out his governing philosophy and guiding aims. His “north stars” are economic growth in every postcode through reindustrialisation enabled by a rewired state.

Connectivity is the common thread running through his ideas on devolution and regeneration. The belief that joining places and people can improve everyday quality of life and opportunity is something he learned during his time in Manchester, but it also highlighted how broken the UK’s current infrastructure delivery model is.

Projects take too long, cost too much and, because they are designed top down, too rarely prioritise benefits for local communities. That is the reality — and one the incoming Burnham government clearly recognises.

Connect the regions

When the second phase of HS2 was abruptly cancelled by Rishi Sunak, it threatened to deal a major blow to the economic ambitions of the North West and the Midlands, while also leaving unresolved the severe congestion on Europe’s busiest railway. We at Arup worked with mayors Burnham and Andy Street to find alternatives that would connect these two regions in ways that were pragmatic, affordable and deliverable.

We began with a simple question: what, exactly, was the desired outcome for people and places on the corridor? Once that was clear — to maximise economic growth — we could design a solution that delivered a comparable benefit at a lower cost than HS2.

Similarly, by prioritising the economic ambitions of local communities, we helped Burnham and Steve Rotheram build a compelling investment case for a new railway between Liverpool and Manchester.

Poor connectivity is a major reason for the UK’s sluggish economic performance relative to comparable European regions. Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr region is highly similar to the UK’s Midlands-North West corridor in population, industrial history and geography, yet it is outperforming us by an additional £100bn in annual output. There are many reasons for that, but it is impossible to ignore Rhine-Ruhr’s superior transport offer.

Waiting in Crewe, for example, for a train to Stockport may leave plenty of time to reflect on why GDP per head is £20,000 higher in Randstad in the Netherlands, another demographically comparable region. There may also be time to wonder why every French city with a population of more than 150,000 — the same size as Ipswich — now has a metro or tram system. While projects in Leeds and Cambridge have remained stuck in development for decades, the French have built mass transit in 30 towns and cities.

Thankfully, Britain does not lack the skills or imagination to change this. From Brunel to Stephenson, British engineers laid the foundations of modern mobility and helped shape our cities. Today, British expertise is sought around the world. From Peru to the Philippines and from the Middle East to Australia, where we are working on the 2032 Olympics, there is no shortage of British brilliance helping deliver inspiring and transformative infrastructure.

Bringing home the full benefits, however, requires a new approach, including learning from others where necessary on how to unlock funding, speed delivery and meet locally defined needs. That matters because transport and regeneration schemes do not only move people; they also shape whether investment, housing and jobs cluster around stations and corridors, so getting the design right at the outset is central to capturing those wider benefits. Creative financing — such as attracting investors by offering to share in the uplift in value around stations — is the kind of blended public and private funding that will be needed.

The UK’s current over-reliance on a technocratic business case process leads to “analysis paralysis”. Instead, the country needs to follow the example of those engineering greats of the past. They established a vision and then were bold and unwavering in delivery. We are optimistic: if done well, the new Number 10 North can play a key role in supercharging delivery. But that will not work unless the government adopts a new approach to how projects are selected and designed.

The success of the Elizabeth Line in London should help convince even the loudest sceptics, with Arup’s analysis showing that around 125,000 new jobs and 71,000 new homes were created around its stations in the first year of operation alone. Despite the project’s delivery challenges, it is clear that well-designed UK infrastructure can unlock major benefits for communities.

Our work with mayors across the UK shows what can and must be done. Trusting local leaders to identify the outcomes they most want, and then helping them find the engineering and financing solutions that best serve that purpose, is the key to bridging the gap between lofty rhetoric and grounded reality. For those of us whose careers are focused on getting things built — and enabling real place-based growth and transformation on the ground — these are exciting times.

Andrew Nothstine is director of UK economics at Arup.