Weekly news round-up - 12 March 2014

Your rapid update on the week's infrastructure stories.

Thomas Paterson
12 March 2014
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  1. The Army and other Services have been drafted in to carry out a “rapid inspection” of England’s flood defences within five weeks to assess the damage left by unprecedented flooding. More than 200 service personnel will be trained by the Environment Agency to act as flood defence assessors and will then assess 150,000 flood defences. Flood experts stress that they also need to inspect the channels around the defences to make sure that they are not silted up.

  2. Capita has been announced as preferred bidder by Ministry of Defence to be the strategic business partner for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to lead the management and transformation of the UK’s national and international defence infrastructure. The £400M deal lasts for 10 year. Capita will lead a partnership including URS and PA Consulting.

  3. Housing minister Kris Hopkins has published a shortlist of 36 developments in areas including London, Manchester, Liverpool and Kirklees which could benefit from a share of a £1bn Build to Rent fund to deliver homes for private rent. Up to 6,500 homes will be built using the additional funding. This is round two of the scheme. Eighteen projects are on the books in round one.

  4. An extra £140M is being made available by Department for Transport to help repair roads hit by weather damage. This includes an extra £36.5M for roads most damaged by the floods and storms bring that total to £80M. And there is an extra £103.5M for all councils across England on top of the £900M road maintenance budget. To qualify for the additional funding councils will have to publish information on their websites by the end of August showing where the money has been spent.

  5. DfT is to underwrite construction of the Mersey Gateway Bridge to the tune of almost £1.7bn up to 2026 to cover any shortfalls in anticipated toll revenues on behalf of scheme promoter Halton Borough Council.

  6. The search has begun for a site for the High Speed Rail College which will work with a network of employers and other educational institutions and providers to boost railway and engineering skills development across the UK.

  7. DCLG has updated National Planning Policy Guidance to include what it call robust guidance on flood risk “making it crystal clear that councils need to consider the strict tests set out in national policy and where these are not met, new development on flood risk sites should not be allowed. The guidance also reaffirmed commitment to the Green Belt.

  8. Ofwat has confirmed that only South West Water and Affinity Water have met the requirements for enhanced status in the latest price review and can now get started early on their next five year investment plan. Other companies have been asked to submit new evidence if they want an earlier draft determination. Key is a cost of capital of under 4%.

  9. Renewables company RES has scrapped plans for a £300M biomass plant at Port of Blyth in Northumberland blaming inconsistency in government energy policy.

  10. Landfill tax has achieved its purpose and should be frozen immediately as a planned increase is going to punish hard pressed families, the Local Government Association has said. There is no evidence to suggest in increase on the current £72 will increase recycling levels, the LGA added. The tax is set to increase to £80 per tonne in April. Revenues should be used locally rather than going to the Treasury according to the association with revenues from the commercial sector being reinvested in new waste technology.