Benchmarking and the Bottom Line. A proposal to improve infrastructure value for money in Britain

Article

Matti Siemiatycki's entry to ippr's Britain's got Brains competition outlines a scheme to reduce the amount of public money wasted on massive public contracts. Contracting out big infrastructure projects wastes millions of pounds of public money every year: £11bn was spent on constructing new transport, water, waste, school, stadium and hospital facilities in 2007, but seven in ten government construction projects are completed over tender price, and seven in ten are delivered late. For example, the total cost of delivering new roads between 1998 and 2006 was £489 million - 40 per cent - more than initially estimated. Matt Siemiatycki has proposed a new benchmarking scheme for construction and service companies that tender for government projects which would keep a record of which companies go over budget so they are not used again.

A submission to ippr's Britain's Got Brains competition.

Matti Siemiatycki's entry to ippr's Britain's got Brains competition outlines a scheme to reduce the amount of public money wasted on massive public contracts. Contracting out big infrastructure projects wastes millions of pounds of public money every year: £11bn was spent on constructing new transport, water, waste, school, stadium and hospital facilities in 2007, but seven in ten government construction projects are completed over tender price, and seven in ten are delivered late. For example, the total cost of delivering new roads between 1998 and 2006 was £489 million - 40 per cent - more than initially estimated. Matt Siemiatycki has proposed a new benchmarking scheme for construction and service companies that tender for government projects which would keep a record of which companies go over budget so they are not used again.

Related items

  1. Queen Square Bus Station on Hood Street in Liverpool city centre

    En route to renewal: Delivering better, greener buses

    Good buses drive a strong economy, healthy environment and thriving society. 
  2. Townhouses beside the railway on the viaduct with a running train in Durham, UK

    On track to prosperity: Great Northern Rail

    It’s time the North saw real change for better transport, delivering prosperity and better lives: a long-term plan for Great Northern Rail
  3. Union Jack flag and the Stars and Stripes flag of the USA, fluttering together in front of Big Ben in Westminster

    It's the cost of living, stupid: Why progressives lose and win

    UK households are impatient for change. Trust in our political system is low and that’s reflected in scepticism across the board that government can make things better.