Andy Burnham must seize the moment and get projects moving

The cost of a road in the UK is at least 20 per cent higher than in similar countries. Independent studies indicate that UK rail costs twice as much as the global average and nuclear power plants 50 per cent more.

Projects are subject to often well-meaning but cumulatively highly damaging rules, regulations and approaches that have swept in like a dense fog between conception and the finishing line.

Unless we change approach to the selection, financing and delivery of social and economic infrastructure projects the UK is heading towards economic decline.

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), of which Sir John was chairman, estimated that the UK needs £75 billion of economic infrastructure every year until 2040, most of which is coming from the private sector.

Sir John (the Chair of the Public Private Partnership Commission, convened by Bradshaw Advisory) wrote in The Times about the golden opportunity that the new prime minister must seize if we are to get the country growing.