The National Infrastructure Commission has released its annual Infrastructure Progress Review 2024, outlining the UK government’s progress on infrastructure commitments and recommendations for future action. The report highlights achievements in renewable energy generation, digital network coverage, and city region devolution deals for infrastructure planning. However, concerns about energy and rail policy and public concerns about energy prices, potholes, and pollution are raised. The report emphasises the need for practical delivery plans and funding to achieve economic growth and environmental objectives while stressing the urgency of accelerated policy implementation and increased investment. The overall recommendation is that timely actions are crucial to avoid delaying benefits and compounding recent disruptions.
In its press release, the National Infrastructure Commission has also warned the government that the window of opportunity to close the infrastructure gap to meet economic growth and climate targets is rapidly closing, emphasising that the next five years will be critical for addressing priorities.
The National Infrastructure Commission has also updated its infrastructure performance dashboard to support interactive analysis related to the current performance of infrastructure sectors, such as transport, energy, digital, flooding, waste, and water. The dashboard now includes current and historic performance measuring data, such as investment, volume, service quality, price, resilience, and environmental impact. Datasets are also now downloadable for users in Excel formats.