Sir John Armitt: we need an OBR for infrastructure

The UK needs to spend around £100bn on infrastructure each year (water, prisons, roads, hospitals, schools, grid, energy generation etc). Half of that money comes from the private sector and half from the taxpayer.

The country has done some things well in recent years (e.g. Thames Tideway Tunnel, CfDs for offshore wind, T2 at Manchester Airport). Other things (e.g HS2, Lower Thames Crossing) have not gone well.

As part of our Public Private Partnership Commission - chaired by Sir John Armitt - alongside leading businesses we are looking at how the UK can do better at selecting, funding, delivering and operating infrastructure that has a real impact on daily lives.

One idea that we are in favour of is creating an 'OBR for infrastructure' or OBRI.

Sir John wrote about the idea in the Financial Times yesterday, the article can be found here or by clicking the image.

This morning (30 July) Sir John also appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme to talk about the OBRI idea alongside why we haven't built any new reservoirs for 40 years as the country faces a drought.