The Royal Academy of Engineering has urged the UK Government to step up maintenance to safeguard ageing infrastructure, as the ‘Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure’ report by the National Engineering Policy Centre calls for the maintenance and renewal of existing assets to be prioritised.
The Royal Academy of Engineering writes:
- Regulators and asset owners should appoint chief engineers to their boards.
- Asset owners, the?government?and regulators need to start a national conversation on management of our critical infrastructure around the costs and trade-offs required for effective maintenance.
In a report published today, Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure, the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC), led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, calls on the government to urgently prioritise, invest in, and reform the management of the UK’s ageing infrastructure. The report, which looks at flood defences, water infrastructure, roads,?bridges?and railways, was developed by expert engineers and asset managers.
Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure highlights how climate change and extreme weather events are stressing structures like roads, bridges, water systems and flood defences. Without timely and planned intervention, emergency outages and disruption to critical services will become more frequent, says the report. This could impact public safety, the economy and the environment.
The challenges associated with ageing infrastructure are illustrated by recent closures of major landmarks such as 67-year-old Clifton Bridge in Nottingham, 138-year-old Hammersmith Bridge in London, and 160-year-old Nuneham Viaduct near Oxford. The resulting lack of access to these essential transport links has caused widespread gridlock for people living and working in those areas. Many of these assets were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries and are now operating at, or near, capacity.?
The report also highlights that infrastructure assets don’t operate in isolation. They are interlinked, so a failure in the water system can cause a flood that blocks roads, railways, impacts homes and potentially even power supplies. Failures can also accelerate over time, causing sudden rapid degradation at certain points, influenced by factors such as materials,?environment?and?usage.
A roadmap for a more proactive approach
Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure sets out a practical, evidence-based roadmap for a new proactive approach to managing the UK’s assets. The report recommends 15 urgent actions, including:
- Government and asset-owners need to change their approach to looking after our national assets from ‘fix it when it breaks’ to?’monitor and maintain’.? This means investing more in?maintaining?and renewing existing infrastructure?to extend its serviceable life and maximise value for money.
- Fragmented regulation and funding mechanisms hinder coordinated action, so a cross-government review of funding and accounting models is needed, to support long-term management.
- The public can play a key role in this change of thinking around maintenance.? Asset owners, the?government?and regulators need to start a national conversation on management of our critical infrastructure around the costs and trade-offs required for effective maintenance.?
- Regulators and asset owners should appoint chief engineers to their boards, who have the technical?expertise?to manage those assets and the risks they face.??
- Professional bodies should champion infrastructure stewardship skills and technical expertise at all levels.
- The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and its counterparts in the devolved nations should establish frameworks for secure sharing of data on the condition and performance of assets and infrastructure networks to enable digital innovation.
Urgent skills gap in technical and specialised roles
A lack of technical and specialised skills is highlighted by the report as a particularly urgent priority. As infrastructure systems become more complex, a skilled workforce is essential to sustain safety, resilience, and innovation. Yet across sectors, organisations are facing acute recruitment and retention challenges, especially in technically specialised roles.
Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure notes that up to 90,000 workers are expected to leave the rail sector through retirement or attrition by 2030, 23% of engineers in the water industry are set to retire in the next 5 years, and the Environment Agency experienced a 33% drop in the number of registered civil engineers working in flood and coastal erosion between 2013 and 2018.
Cost-effective intervention and carbon savings
The report concludes that proactive maintenance and renewal can offer excellent return on investment, and the overall cost of maintenance tends to be lower?if?it is planned and executed?in a timely manner, because cost increases tend to accelerate once assets deteriorate beyond a certain threshold.
The estimated return on investment varies, from?a minimum return of £2.20 for every?additional?£1 invested in local highways, to a return of £11 for every £1 invested in maintenance of?flood defences.? Without investment?in flood defences, annual damages could reach £3.6 billion by 2050??(2 & 3)… Effective management of assets has potential carbon savings as well as economic ones. Maximising the life of our existing infrastructure is far less carbon intensive than demolishing and replacing it.
Dr Steve Denton FREng FICE FIStructE, Royal Academy of Engineering Vice President and Chair of the NEPC Working Group on Ageing Infrastructure, says: ‘Much of the UK’s essential infrastructure was built decades ago and many assets need immediate attention to ensure they can continue to support the services on which people and the economy depend. After years of underinvestment in maintenance, our approach to managing our ageing infrastructure must change.
‘By following the recommendations in this report and investing wisely in our existing assets, we can safeguard essential services, support economic growth and develop world-leading expertise and technologies sustaining infrastructure stewardship.’
‘Our existing infrastructure is too often taken for granted and it is only when essential services are compromised because of unplanned closures or maintenance that it gets attention. This will only become more acute with accelerating decline, heightened demand and the impact of climate change. We must value our existing infrastructure and those who maintain and manage it more highly.’
Jo Parker MBE FIWater FICE FCIWEM, former VP of Engineering, Institute of Water and Director, Watershed Associates says: ‘This report demonstrates the economic and environmental value of preserving and renewing our infrastructure. The challenges we face in getting that done are systemic and involve not just changing how we think but also how we value this work and the skills and expertise needed to do that.’
‘There is an engineering and technical skills gap that we’ve identified within our profession for some time and which many organisations are consistently trying to tackle with training programmes and targeted promotion to young people of engineering as a worthwhile career.’
‘However, we are still not recruiting sufficient technical people and even more should be done so that this essential infrastructure can continue to provide the services on which we all depend.’
‘I hope this report starts a conversation about why and how we can think about renovating our ageing infrastructure, so we keep these assets working for our communities for as long as is safely possible.’
Professor Andrew McNaughton, FREng FICE FCILT FRGS FIET, Chair, Network Rail (High Speed) Limited and ICE Policy Fellow says: ‘The ICE has long called for more investment in maintenance of our infrastructure. This is critical to ensuring the safety and economic viability of communities around the world.’
‘This report clearly demonstrates the need for closer collaboration between government, regulators, asset owners and the wider industry, something we whole heartedly support. Government has acknowledged the need for maintenance in the 10-year infrastructure strategy, we now need a period of sustained funding to match that ambition.’
‘We need to work together to develop public awareness and support for maintenance work and then repay their trust by ensuring that any work is carried out in a timely and efficient manner.’
Notes for editors
1. Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure report was developed by the National Engineering Policy Centre, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, in collaboration with the Institution of Civil Engineers, Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation, Institute of Highway Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Institution of Structural Engineers, Institute of Water, Permanent Way Institute, and Institute of Asset Management.
Working Group membership
2. Department for Transport. (2024). Economic appraisal for investing in local highways maintenance. https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67696f33e6ff7c8a1fde9d3f/ dft-economic-app
3. National Audit Office. (2023). Resilience to flooding. www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Resilience-toflooding-.pdf
4. The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across the profession. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.?? Our work is enabled by funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, corporate and university partners, charitable trusts and foundations, and individual donors.?? The Royal Academy of Engineering convenes experts and innovators to engineer better lives, delivering public benefit through excellence in engineering and technology.
The National Engineering Policy Centre is led by the Academy and unites 43 professional engineering organisations, representing 450,000 engineers, to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance.
