Major Scheme Development: Process Review and Mapping

All of the EEH partners are involved - to some extent - with the planning and delivery of major transport infrastructure. However, across the EEH partners experience in the planning and delivery of major projects is variable, a function of the scale of their infrastructure programmes. This activity is supported by a patch-work of capabilities - with some partners retaining skills in-house, others relying upon services provided under professional service contracts. In-house capabilities have been particularly difficult to retain - a combination of high demand for these skills across the sector as a whole, and variable funding within EEH partners for the planning and development of projects. These pressures have been set within continued on EEH partner budgets overall as demand for other services has increased and Government grant funding declined. Delivering on the ambition to realise the economic ambition for the corridor will require the development of an investment pipeline for strategic transport infrastructure. In the current context this provides both an opportunity and a challenge - an opportunity to improve the planning, development and delivery of major infrastructure projects: a challenge in that it requires both access to the required skills and resources that will enable an efficient and effective approach to project planning, development and delivery. A key driver for establishing England's Economic Heartland was the recognition by the Political and Business Leaders as to the benefit of sharing knowledge, experience and learning as a means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of processes that support the delivery of strategic infrastructure - including but not limited to strategic transport infrastructure. It is in this context that the EEH Business Unit is seeking to commission specialist work from consultants, the purpose of that commission being to work with the EEH Business Unit and its partners to review the process through which a major infrastructure project passes.