Feature – Infrastructure


INFRASTRUCTURE:


HOW TO BUILD BACK BETTER


Everyone loves infrastructure, especially the government. Indeed, in 2020 the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, set out the UK’s first infrastructure strategy. This was followed almost two years later with the Levelling Up whitepaper, which has infrastruc- ture scribbled all over it, like a lovelorn teenager. Institutional investors, particularly pension funds, also love the asset class for a host of reasons. But for all this love, the biggest challenge associated with infra- structure is the simplest and the most obvious: the lack of appropriate projects to invest in. How can something so loved be so elusive? The government has a major role here, possibly becoming an effective infrastructure-dating agency, so inves- tors and projects can meet their ideal match. “Government intervention is the most likely and most signifi- cant catalyst to increase the number of investable greenfield projects,” says Paddy Dowdall, assistant executive director of


48 | portfolio institutional | March 2022 | issue 111


the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, citing one area that is no doubt the future of infrastructure (see boxout, Infrastruc- ture: Going green). “This could be in the form of direct procure- ment of social infrastructure, renewable energy subsidies-price certainty grants for brownfield re-development, or co-invest- ment on a subordinated basis,” he adds. Sarah Gordon, chief executive of the Impact Investing Insti- tute, agrees, noting that while the government has encouraged institutional investment, it could, and should, extend its work further to focus on impact investing. “We believe they [the gov- ernment] can go one step further by using public investment to catalyse institutional investment in historically under-served regions of the UK. “Alongside helping to crowd in investment, government can also empower people and communities in these places to engage with private capital,” she adds.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56