As part of her regular Policy Insight update Paula Claytonsmith – Director, Government and Policy at the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) – highlights research and insight to help councils and the private sector. In the second edition, Paula covers innovation, the environment, data and social value – whilst also touching upon the results from the Census 2021 in England and Wales and what this means for local authorities.
As a non-profit Community Interest Company (CIC), we believe in giving the best to all our members and partners. We are enthusiastic about making sure we put our resources both financial and intellectual into the sector. My role includes seeking out knowledge, sharing ideas, highlighting policies from the Government, and helping to bring the latest ideas to our members. My aim during these briefings is to curate insights that will provoke awareness and thought amongst our members whether they are councils, SMEs, or larger organisations.
There is a real theme around innovation in this Policy Insight. This is partly inspired by our recent Innovation Festival held at Newark Showground at the beginning of July. We have had some great feedback and are already fielding requests from industry and councils wanting to return next year. For me, as in I said in the Highways News Podcast, seeing councils and suppliers interact around innovation was great to see. I often talk about micro innovations and macro innovations and a range of these could be seen from the innovative itip handles to large machines from Stabilised Pavements, Multevo, WJ, and JCB to data technology from Gaist.
On the theme of Innovation, which of course is one of our pillars of “Making the Case for Local Roads” the prospectus for DfT’s Live Labs 2 Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK has been launched. Live Labs 2 concentrates this time on Local Highways and Assets. Councils are encouraged to work in partnership with others and of course LCRIG are happy support the overall programme and individual authorities submitting a proposal.
Government and other organisations
In early July the Government announced funding for projects developing innovative carbon removal tech. This press release went under the radar in some respects and certainly received less press coverage than New aerospace innovation to propel the UK to growth and greener skies. However, the former press release when you look at the detail of the funded projects has some powerful benefits not least when the sector we work within is often cited as a key polluter DfT Transport and Environment Statistics Annual Report 2021.
Additionally, the recent report from the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) ‘Air pollution: cognitive decline and dementia’ is a further stark warning against air pollution in our communities.
The next interesting area released by the Government is the National AI Strategy – Action Plan. In our, industry AI is emerging in several ways whether it be road condition defect identification, traffic (and people counts), collision alerts, people safety in traffic, or construction. With more applications emerging all the time, AI will get ever more sophisticated. However, to quote the Peter Parker principle “With great power comes great responsibility” a proverb popularised by the Spider-Man comic books written by Stan Lee. If rules around AI in the UK fail to keep up with fast-moving technology, innovation could be stifled, and it will become harder for regulators to protect the public and so the strategy has three pillars to try and keep pace. The government’s approach will create proportionate and adaptable regulation so that AI continues to be rapidly adopted in the UK to boost productivity and growth.
Keeping pace with technology is just as key in ‘building public confidence in location data – the ABC of ethical use?‘ published last month by the Geospatial Commission. Many may be aware of Project NUAR but the Geospatial Commission is also tasked with thinking about policy in the area of location data for which our sector gains a great deal from the subsequent data.
Last month I highlighted the Procurement Bill going through Parliament and the Government has recently released its “Transforming Public Procurement – Our transparency Ambition” this document highlights some interesting key points for future public procurement for which both councils and the supply chain may wish to watch carefully. The Government has outlined that one of the goals of the Procurement Bill is to create a fully transparent public procurement system. The Government wants everyone from citizens to ministers, large companies to sole traders, those responsible for multi-billion-pound defence contracts to people buying stationery on behalf of a district council (for example), to be able to view, search and understand what the UK public sector wants to buy, how much it is spending, and with whom. There will be a central digital platform, with information on public procurement from planning through to contract termination, which Government believes will ensure transparency to help drive better value for money.
Following on from the changes discussed above, the Social Value Act which requires councils to think about how they can secure wider social, economic, and environmental act continues to grow in importance beyond just larger suppliers. The Social Value portal used by many councils and suppliers as a way of measuring Social Value (and performance) has completed its annual review of its National Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMs) framework to make sure that; all data is up-to-date, the framework works best for users, the themes, outcomes, and measures (TOMs) continue to reflect organisations’ needs. The updates this year focus on simplicity, environment, and relevancy.
Looking ahead
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has published its first results from the Census 2021 in England and Wales. The population of England and Wales has increased by more than 3.5 million in the 10 years leading up to Census 2021. Using the first results from this census, the ONS looks at which places have seen the biggest increases and decreases, which areas had the largest growth in different age groups, and how local authority areas compare with others – the results are very interesting once you delve into them. Of course, it is population change, future technological change, and behaviours that councils will be trying to predict.
Road charging as an idea has a long history and periodically various organisations will review the acceptance (or not) of the principle. The LGA has released the results of their Mott MacDonald commissioned review into road charging which can be read here.
Something a bit different
Last month I shared a link for NASA’s “Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation” and the popular (according to feedback) link for Climate change and Pizza source. This month something a bit different is a future world not yet entirely here.
Have you heard about The Metaverse? A Behavioural Scientist’s POV on the metaverse and as with innovation adoption thinking about the human part of the process will be key. The conclusion of the video is well worth watching.
Connecting the Metaverse and how future transportation might be is the subject of this article. It is a thought-provoking article but will trends move this way?
Thank you for reading and as always, I can be contacted via email at paula.claytonsmith@lcrig.org.uk
In my final note, preparations are underway for the TTF Update Event in the Autumn, please keep an eye on the TTF website for more details or contact gill.butcher@lcrig.org.uk, More information on LCRIG’s popular Strictly Highways will be released very soon, so keep an eye out for both of these events and how you can take part.