A big part of my job involves getting out and about, whether attending conferences, going to Whitehall for government meetings, or meeting with local authorities and/or suppliers. Last week, I was at Highways UK, and this week I’m at the CECA event on “Aging Assets” in Bristol at the Aerospace Museum. So, my VfTT title is partly inspired by the 1987 comedy (and poignant) film “Trains, Planes and Automobiles,” featuring Steve Martin and John Candy; fortunately my journey is not quite as disaster-filled! More on the aging assets point later.
Since my last VftT, I have attended two of our seven regular council regional group meetings. The South Central is chaired by Sean Rooney, an LCRIG Board member, while the North West Group is chaired by Paul Binks, another LCRIG Board member. Both meetings were great and lively for very different reasons. I always try to attend our regional group meetings, as they provide a fantastic opportunity to connect with our council membership base. Topics often cover a wide range, including knowledge sharing, presentations from external speakers, innovations councils are using or trialing, challenges faced, and peer support for councils. I also provide updates on wider LCRIG activities and policy work I’m engaged in. Now, with a research insight function, Dan, our Head of Sector Insights, will join meetings to support councils and share our knowledge of the sector.
While we have traditionally focused on council only groups, there has been an increasing demand for us to lead more technical groups in areas not covered by other associations. Additionally, suppliers have requested to be part of these groups to help “give back” to the sector. I discussed this at Strictly Highways a few weeks ago, but more details can be found in our LCRIG member update.
Focusing on the theme of “Aging Assets” and the topic of the CECA event that I’ll be attending by the time you read this, it is evident that there isn’t a public authority that isn’t trying to manage aging assets amidst declining budgets, staff shortages, and the impacts of climate change. Not surprisingly, this was a consistent theme in the recent NAO report on local roads, as well as in many select committees over the last ten years. There are some interesting omissions in the report which disappointingly focuses solely on roads and not on the wider deteriorating local highways infrastructure. Arguably, you can’t talk about roads without acknowledging the sparsity of budgets, particularly regarding revenue for managing assets within the totality of highways services. But I won’t dwell on that here.
There is a real chicken and egg situation for both the government and local government: extra funding relies on evidence, correction, robust evidence for the Treasury (DfT have been asking the sector for years!). However, the quality and comprehensiveness of data across the sector is not consistent and certainly not robust enough to take a punt on providing bigger budgets, especially in light of the financial climate over the past twenty years. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, despite having to manage aging assets with limited budgets, the sector has become quite creative and turned to innovation. As our preliminary analysis of our largest and most in-depth innovation survey shows (members can read about it in the latest member update), the biggest blocker is risk aversion and lack of higher management support for creativity. Unfortunately, this means only a small proportion of the sector is able to use innovation transformatively to try and manage aging infrastructure.
If you have a view on this, do contact us.
Paula Claytonsmith, CEO