Engineers urge parties to "commit to infrastructure" in General Election campaign

The Institution of Civil Engineers has launched a campaign to persuade those running for political office to 'commit to infrastructure' by giving transport and other infrastructure a "front row seat" in the debates.

As the General Election campaign starts this week, the ICE hopes that the parties will recognise infrastructure as a "driver of growth and job creation" and "maintaining our quality of life" and wants to encourage "political courage" on controversial issues such as aviation policy. The ICE will in the coming months arrange hustings and use its report on infrastructure resilience to promote debate.

The ICE wants the next Parliament to both be "visonary" on infrastructure, but also not to "start from scratch" but build on existing plans when a new Government is formed. One of the Institution's hoped-for outcomes is that the parties agree to accelerate the process of devolution of transport powers in the next Parliament to unlock the potential of the U.K's city regions.

The move comes after Britain's manufacturers urged a new Infrastructure Authority to take the politics out of transport and other infrastructure.

Read more. From the archive: what are the parties' visions for transport?