On Wednesday 18^th October IBBC was pleased to host an Industry Forum  breakfast meeting in its offices with about twenty IBBC members and guests in attendance.

The Title of the Discussion was “ The need for consensus on vital infrastructure projects “ and the Guest Speaker was Sir John Armitt, CBE, FREng, FICE, FCGI, Chair National Infrastructure Commission.

In his presentation Sir John outlined the wide range of projects that the Commission gets involved with, but currently the priority projects revolve around energy, water and transport. He emphasized  the very long timeframe of planning, consulting and implementing such projects and the huge costs involved and complexities involved, and also the additional pressures imposed on the task by operating in a liberal democracy.

He also alluded to the difficulties of having to deal with ever changing politicians and the priority they have of wishing to make headline making announcements with less attention given to follow implementation.

Sir John impressed all present with his mastery of his brief – a most excellent and thought provoking discussion.