News & insights
Date: May 2019 | Sector: Infrastructure | Mobilising finance | Expertise: Public policy & strategy
Financing UK infrastructure
Our review of private financing for infrastructure contributed to the national infrastructure debate on what role the public and private sectors should have in developing and financing UK infrastructure.
It found that availability of finance was not a binding constraint, but that for sectors with limited investment a lack of well-designed and bankable projects was a particularly limiting factor. To alleviate these constraints, the government can play an important role in providing clarity to the private sector on upcoming opportunities and structure projects in a way that opens up investment from a wider range of private finance providers.
Understanding the market
We reviewed private financing flows to UK infrastructure, including a detailed assessment of how institutional investment had supported transactions in recent years. We also identified the potential pipeline of opportunities available to the private sector going forward.
Looking to the future
The study highlighted that ensuring revenue certainty is essential for attracting private finance, and that additional support in the form of government credit guarantees are only needed on an exceptional basis. Key approaches to explore going forward include government investing in projects pre-operations and recycling this capital once risks are mitigated, as well as exploring how direct contribution pension schemes can better access illiquid infrastructure opportunities, given their expected growth.
Our findings fed directly into the National Infrastructure Assessment, and contributed to the Government's theme of "Investing in the future" as part of the 2019 Spring Statement.
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