Editor’s message and September/October 2017 magazine download

The infrastructure sector needs to focus much more on the people who work in or are affected by its work, says Andy Walker in his editor's comment in the September/October issue of the Infrastructure Intelligence magazine. 

Andy Walker
27 September 2017

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Click here to download the September/October 2017 edition of the magazine.

Speaking to people across the industry, I’m increasingly struck by the regularity that the issue of people comes up in conversation. This might be staff in construction firms who deliver great work across the country, or the public who need convincing about the importance of major (and minor) infrastructure projects. The industry needs to pay more attention to people and the effect that they have on the sector and that’s why this issue features the growing importance of wellbeing in the workplace (p22-23) and also stakeholder engagement (p20-21) and the need to win people over to our cause.

In my view the industry has made big strides forward in the way it engages with people at all levels and that goes a long way to positioning infrastructure as an attractive people business to work in. Of course there is no room for complacency and improvements still need to be made, but we should always accentuate the positive because that has an effect on how people view the sector.

Elsewhere in this issue we look at London’s new environment strategy (p8) and the mayor’s plans to create more affordable housing (p9). To balance things up geographically, we report on moves to create a new ‘Council of the North’ and give an update on the ongoing efforts to improve rail transport across the region (p10-11).

Our centre page feature is an extended interview with Amey chief executive Andy Milner, who spoke to us about his first 18 months at the helm of the company and the not inconsiderable challenges he’s faced (p16-18). We’ve also got the usual selection of excellent opinion pieces including articles on getting paid on time (p24), handling large scale recruitment (p30), infrastructure investment (p31) and much more.

To find out more of what exactly, you’ll just have to read the magazine - and as always, don’t forget to let us know what you think about our content and if you have an idea for something we should cover then please do get in touch.

Andy Walker is the editor of Infrastructure Intelligence.

Click here to download the September/October 2017 edition of the magazine.