Infrastructure on time and on budget
The UK government has recently highlighted a number of key projects across Great Britain to drive the infrastructure revolution. Huge investment into road, rail, port and digital infrastructure lead the way in driving economic and social growth for the UK nationwide. Targeting the area of digital infrastructure allows us to see a successful case study of a huge digital infrastructure project undertaken by the British government that is being delivered on time, on budget and with huge beneficial implications for generations to come.
The Building Digital UK project was undertaken to deliver fast fibre-optic broadband nationwide (mainly targeting rural areas). As stated in the IPA’s Annual report; ‘The department for digital, culture, media and sport £1.7 Bn Building Digital UK programme was created to fund the further deployment of superfast broadband when the service failed to reach many parts of the UK’.
After Lord Foster’s recent remarks in a Politics Home report that ‘rural areas have been left behind in the improvements to digital connectivity and face higher housing costs while having lower wages’ it is evident that this project is now, more than ever, crucial to driving economic growth forward. This growth will be stimulated by making sure these parts of the UK stay fully connected, increase productivity and help the UK nationwide to further adapt to the digital age.
The delivery of this project on time, on budget and successfully, is paramount to the government. At a time of economic instability, such as we are facing with Brexit looming the UK’s economic growth has slowed and in turn put huge strain on the ‘Brexit War Chest’ provided by Former Chancellor Philip Hammond. This means that large scale projects such as this must run efficiently and effectively. So how do you make sure that these major projects run as smoothly as possible?
In our experience, having a central cross-departmental body and a capable functional leader in place drives higher standards for major projects in a multitude of areas. When the functional leader reports directly to senior executive positions there is a greater degree of central oversight of the largest and most strategically critical projects. A more direct flow of information from the central unit to project leaders and then to senior cabinet officials allows for more control and oversight leading to less chance of project failure. It ensures there is a more systematic approach by departments such as DCMS (digital, culture, media and sport) to managing their major projects, including assessing viability before a project is initiated and undergoing regular, planned scrutiny to keep it on track.
FMA have been at the forefront of this in the UK government. Lord Francis Maude introduced the Major Projects Authority (MPA) in 2011, with an enforceable mandate from the Prime Minister to oversee and direct the effective management of all large-scale projects that are funded and delivered by central government. The MPA merged with Infrastructure UK in 2016 to form the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, which now acts as this fundamental functional unit.
The IPA has been crucial in helping the Department of DCMS deliver on Building Digital UK. Raj Kalia (a senior partner in the Building Digital UK programme) states “The IPA has supported us with the programme by conducting regular independent assurance reviews and providing independent scrutiny at the monthly portfolio boards… The most recent IPA gateway 5 review in January 2018 gave the programme a high delivery confidence rating and provided value recommendations for the future management and direction of the programme.”
Success can be seen by the effect this project has had on the private sector with ’ the high take up rates of the public programme encouraging the telecommunications industry to expand their own commercial broadband project’. On top of this, a survey from the IPA last autumn identified that the ‘benefit to cost ratio was £1.96 per £1 - meaning each pound invested is set to return £1.96 of the value to the Government and the UK economy’. Both points illustrate how this functional model aides the successful management and delivery of major projects, while saving the taxpayer significant sums.