This is a shortened version of an interview with Alex Vaughan, Costain CEO, that was first published by New Civil Engineer in September 2024, available here.

With funds for infrastructure limited, leveraging private finance to help build large schemes going forward will be paramount to their success.

“I think the biggest thing the UK government can do is to have a 10-year plan,” says Costain chief executive Alex Vaughan. “I think if you can turn around and give confidence that actually, we’ve got a programme of investment that we make over the next 10 years, then investors can have confidence that they can see where they can invest.”

Vaughan believes that enabling confidence in private investors comes down to ensuring the infrastructure being invested in comes with some certainty.

“What are the challenges that get in the way of projects at the moment?” Vaughan asks.

“Investors just want confidence that if they allocate £2bn to the UK [for infrastructure projects] that the infrastructure is going to happen, and it is going to happen on time.

“If it’s not, the investors are going to put their money into a different country. The stability of having a 10-year plan will give them the confidence.”

[…]

Skills

While the most important thing for Vaughan is to ensure confidence in the market, Vaughan believes that enacting a 10-year plan will help remedy issues that currently exist within the industry, namely, the skills challenge.

“It’s about attracting young people into the industry where they can see a long-term future and it’s about redeveloping the skills of the people in the industry, because we can say this is where the industry is going to and we’re not going to keep doing it the way we did it.”

“People are attracted to our industry because you get to make a difference, and our industry is actually very positive for communities, sustainability and improving people’s lives.”

Alex goes on to speak about the need for a designated infrastructure minister to oversee a 10-year plan, and why this will boost the attractiveness of UK infrastructure projects for investors. You can read the full article on New Civil Engineer here.

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Alex Vaughan, CEO, Costain