Financing and productivity at top of agenda as bosses from country’s biggest builders meet NISTA chief

Bosses from the country’s biggest contractors have met with the chief executive of the government’s infrastructure body NISTA to discuss ways to make sure a promised infrastructure bonanza gets built.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority was set up last year to help oversee the government’s 10 year infrastructure strategy.

Monday’s meeting, held in London, was organised by Balfour Beatty with attendees sent a memo beforehand outlining what would be discussed.

It said: “Priorities for the meeting include a request for practical UK case studies showing where private finance (beyond PFI) has worked well and why. This is not about balance-sheet investment. It’s about delivery experience.”

Among the dozen or so names invited to the event included Kier chief executive Stuart Togwell, Costain boss Alex Vaughan, Galliford Try chief Bill Hocking and Mace executive chairman Mark Reynolds.

One source said: “It was quite a big meeting, probably a couple of hours. It was to understand NISTA’s direction of travel and how things can be aligned from us in terms of productivity.”

The meeting was co-hosted by Balfour chief executive Philip Hoare and Wood.

In a post on LinkedIn, Balfour said: “The roundtable convened senior industry leaders with colleagues from government and the Cabinet Office to explore how a shared approach to benchmarking could drive real change.

“The conversation focused on how the sector can build greater alignment around productivity and strengthen our collective ability to deliver the resilient, affordable and sustainable infrastructure the UK needs.”

It added: “Collaboration at this level is essential – and today demonstrated a strong collective commitment to moving forward, together.”