The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 21

Guest: Michelle de Franca, Bechtel managing director UK & Ireland.

The power of public infrastructure

This podcast discusses the power of public infrastructure - examining how investment in new and renewed assets can radically change lives and create huge additional social value to improve communities.

The phrase levelling up has become something of a catch-all when it comes to UK public infrastructure investment – a way to spread the nation’s wealth beyond London and the South East; a way to redistribute opportunity towards long forgotten communities; or perhaps a means to access the skills and hidden talent currently overlooked across the nation.

Describe the benefits how you will. But essentially it is all about creating focus on the social outcomes. It’s about thinking beyond the usual obsession around economic benefit to actually judge the value of interventions on the way they impact real people’s lives. Here we are talking about benefits such as better health and learning outcomes, greater access to housing and transport, reducing carbon emissions and increasing community cohesion.

Achieving this so-called social dividend is now increasingly critical. For any organisation or business hoping to succeed in the public infrastructure arena – in planning, in delivery, in operation and in maintenance – social outcomes must be both top of mind and, more importantly, a genuine ambition.

So to help us to understand more about this vital issue and the power of public infrastructure to deliver social value, it is my pleasure to welcome Michelle de Franca, managing director UK & Ireland at Bechtel Infrastructure. Michelle spends her time helping clients to plan and deliver infrastructure investment so is well placed to assist today.

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