National Infrastructure Commission’s Post

#InfrastructureInvestments help drive #economicdevelopment, #competitivestanding, and #qualityoflife.

Following the King’s Speech and the state opening of Parliament, the next few weeks will see a wave of policy details fleshing out the Government’s ambitious commitments to drive forward new housebuilding and infrastructure projects. Alexander Sabin explores the key early priorities for the Government, and investigates how these policy areas are expected to adapt in the near future, as well as the wider impact to the built environment sector. To read this analysis in further detail, click here: https://lnkd.in/eEvjgywv Tomorrow, we’ll take a deep dive into the King’s Speech, examining the key announcements made by the Prime Minister with further in-depth analysis on the effect on the built environment. To keep up to date with the latest policy announcements, sign up to our Political Insights newsletter by contacting us here: politicalinsights@kandaconsulting.co.uk To find out more about our political insights offer, click here: https://lnkd.in/ecrt_uiF

I was grateful for the opportunity to join West Midlands' new Mayor Richard Parker on this panel last night, thank you Tim Fawcett. I was pleased to share Sustrans’ key ask that we start by making the region’s streets safe for our children. If we make our neighbourhoods better for children to move about in, we’ll improve them for everyone. Fewer than a third of people say their streets are safe for children cycling (Walking & Cycling Index). We want safe routes to every school, and a comprehensive programme of traffic-free School Streets. Sustrans’ manifesto calls for a doubling of the amount of traffic-free and quiet road cycle routes, to bring this ambition to reality. It was also good to talk about how we choose to prioritise street space and funding. There’s so much that can be done through street design, to signal different travel behaviour and ownership of street space. Let’s give more space and funding to the healthy and sustainable modes we know we need to enable. Did you know residents in West Midlands walk on average 100 miles less per person per year than the England average? (DfT National Travel Survey). I was delighted to hear the mayor confirm that he intends to appoint a new Walking & Cycling Commissioner. This role has been shown to be effective in the West Midlands. Alongside the ‘big ticket’ items like bus franchising and rail, we need to keep a dedicated focus on creating space for active travel – with all the potential these modes offer to tackle health inequalities, contribute to net zero, and realise incredible rates of return on investment. 

New on Wonkhe: A steer from government on its planned "wide-scale reform" of HE should prompt the sector in England to start working through the technical challenges of delivering change, says Debbie McVitty https://lnkd.in/e7C85HFc "The thing about the government’s priorities for HE is that at a high level they are impossible to disagree with, and every single one constitutes a complex and challenging problem that there are no easy routes to solving. Which means that in spending energy on this agenda the sector should think now about how it is going to focus less on broad policy ideas and principles, and more on the difficult bits of defining shared success criteria and an implementation framework."

A good LTT article on the then-new Waltham Forest Mini-Holland, from 2015. “Right now too many don’t see the option of cycling or walking as practical, feasible or safe...In five years’ time I believe that attitude will be radically different and those people who embrace the opportunities Mini-Holland opens up will find themselves fitter, healthier and financially better off." Did it work? Here's a Forbes article and a 30-minute video. See for yourself. https://lnkd.in/guXZU2Bu

Over the past year since moving to Scotland with my family, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with the business community here. Relocating and settling into a new chapter wasn’t just a career move, it was a family decision rooted in my belief in both DC Thomson's potential to deliver world class and vitally important investments and digital transformations in news and energy and also Scotland’s potential for growth. Our work to deliver quality digital local news is fast becoming a recognised global case study. In E-FWD and Energy Voice the teams here and at Fifth Ring have created power brands in Energy news, networking and influence that are a magnet for talent and momentum. In my time with DC Thomson I’ve seen Scotland’s businesses face extraordinary challenges: - The upheaval of Brexit (I’ve met hundreds of business owners, and not one has told me it’s helped them accelerate growth), - The uncertainty and disruption of Covid, - Soaring inflation and its impact on costs and margins, And now, the challenges posed by taxation in the last budget. Despite it all, the resilience and determination I’ve witnessed have been nothing short of remarkable. Last week at the Scottish Chambers of Commerce Annual Business Address, I shared my thoughts on why Scotland is uniquely positioned to tackle these challenges, and how its business community can lead the way towards a prosperous future powered by secure clean energy. If you weren’t able to attend, I’ve attached a copy of my full speech as a PDF. Take a look and let me know your thoughts, whether you agree, disagree, or have ideas of your own to share. This is a conversation worth having, and I’m grateful to be part of it here in Scotland. Thank you David Thomson, Michael Thomson, Christopher Thomson, Ben Gray, Maria Welch, Gillian Troup, Andy Williams, Cara Munro, Craig Walker, Rebecca Miskin, Lee Wilkinson, Ella Dolphin, Sophie Holt, Tom Miller, Douglas McCabe, Ian Ord, Russell Borthwick, Ryan Crighton, Liz McAreavey, William Stormont, Iain Hutchison, Geoff Aberdein, Jennifer Maclennan, Mike Soutar, Russell Dalgleish, Phil Milton, Sepi Golzari-Munro, Tom Hutchison and many many others who have kept me moving on the way E-FWD. #Scotland #BusinessResilience #Leadership #Energy #lifeatdcthomson

The power of dataviz😅

Reshuffle. So the planning and energy functions have been split as expected: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy & Welsh Language - Jeremy Miles MS Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government & Planning - Julie James MS I suspect that means Mr Miles is now responsible for determining energy DNS projects (and future ICOs) #cymru #reshuffle

2001-2006: FIVE YEARS THAT SPAWNED A REVOLUTION IN ELECTRICITY PRICING I was managing the Retail and Power Markets Area at the Electric Power Research Institute in 2000-01 when California's energy crisis happened. I co-authored an Economists Manifesto with several leading thinkers on the need to reconnect retail and wholesale markets via price-responsive demand to avoid a repeat. Coincidentally, Steve George, a friend from my grad school days with whom I had worked at the California Energy Commission, hired me into Charles River Associates (CRA), a premier economic consultancy. At CRA, I met a number of amazing people, including Jim Snow, Mike Thomas, Richard Tabors, Ira Shavel, Robert Earle, Robert Stoddard and Vikram Singh. I also reconnected with Jan Paul Acton, with whom I had worked on time-of-use (TOU) rates while he was at RAND and with Lance Hoch. Steve and I did some really fun projects on Time-of-Use rates in Washington State with PSE and a group of stakeholders that included Jim Lazar; in Minnesota with Xcel Energy with Ron Darnell and Steve Huso and in Ontario with Gordon Kaiser. We also published extensively in the media and in economic journals. We also did a fair bit of work in California, our home state, initially with PG&E on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and then with all three investor-owned utilities on a retail pricing experiment that was managed by the two state commissions, the CEC and the CPUC, and conducted through a working group process. "WG 3" included several stakeholders including Richard McCann, Mark S. Martinez. The Statewide Pricing Pilot (SPP) is what it came to be called. Over a two-year period, it showed that residential customers responded to time-variation in prices, and time-varying rates could lower customer bills and system costs. The SPP set a high bar for the rest of the nation and led to many similar pilots being designed and carried out not just in the US but also in Canada and the rest of the globe. At CRA, I also did a fair bit of work in Saudi Arabia with the electric utilities on demand-side management, load forecasting and tariff design. What happened in those five "magical" years is detailed in the blog. #cra #consulting #economics #dynamicpricing #dsm #saudi #spp #demandresponse