The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 72

Guest:  Kate Jennings, chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering.

A manifesto for growth

It's General Election week and so in today's podcast we talk about creating sustainable growth - and how we ensure that professional engineers remain at the top table when it comes to influencing the vital infrastructure investment decisions needed to deliver it.

Given that we are choosing out next government this week, it seems a great moment to find out how an organisation like the ACE, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering - which for over a century has been the voice of engineering consultancy - can ensure that any new administration makes the right decisions when it comes to the long-term planning for UK infrastructure. 

Not least given that the ACE has just published a post-Election manifesto setting out the priorities for the next UK Government to achieve sustainable growth.

Of course, over the last decade or so we have seen the world of engineering consultancy change dramatically. The market has consolidated to create a small number of super large, globally focused, multi-disciplinary consultancies while new technologies and tools have begun to transform the entire design and asset management process. 

Clients perhaps benefit from lower costs and a single point of contact but what has been the impact on innovation and agility? 

Has the sector been squashed by falling fee levels and crushed by unbalanced risk allocation?

Or is the sector in fact a thriving hotbed of new ideas driven by these new technologies and new young thinking?

Without question every political party talks about the need to boost our investment in infrastructure and accelerate its delivery as core to driving growth. But the constant question is how to turn this enthusiasm into actual outcomes when the robber hits the road and public spending realities inevitably dawn.

Now is certainly a moment for change. So let’s find out by welcoming Kate Jennings, chief executive of the ACE to the podcast today. Kate is three months into her role so let’s find out what her manifesto says and what she has planned.

The Infrastructure Podcast

All episodes