Faster mass transit starts with better policy development

The ambition to deliver mass transit more quickly is difficult to argue with. Across the UK, better-connected transport networks have an important role to play in unlocking housing, regeneration, employment and economic growth. But if faster delivery is the objective, policy needs to look beyond the time taken by individual approval processes and consider what makes a scheme genuinely ready to progress.

That is the central argument in Ardent’s response to the Mass Transit Taskforce’s call for evidence. Drawing on almost 35 years of experience supporting major transport infrastructure, including more than 25 Transport and Works Act Order projects, our submission considers what could help schemes move more confidently from ambition through development, consent and into operation.

Policy should anticipate delivery, not react to it

There is an understandable tendency when considering infrastructure reform to focus on individual stages of the process: business case approval, consultation, consenting or construction. In practice, those stages are closely connected and policy that treats these activities too sequentially risks allowing uncertainty to accumulate until a project reaches the point where change becomes more difficult and expensive. A more proactive approach would bring the knowledge needed to deliver a scheme into its development much earlier.

Craig Young, Head of Strategic Growth for Transport at Ardent, said:

“Too often, the debate about if we can accelerate infrastructure project starts with how we make an existing process shorter but without the acceptance of innovation, or willingness to do things different, which then makes it harder to be quicker, leaner and more efficient.

“So perhaps the much bigger opportunity is to ask how policy can help projects become better prepared in the first place. If land, stakeholder, consenting, operational and delivery considerations are informing decisions while routes and propositions can still change, issues can be identified earlier and dealt with more intelligently. Good policy should create the conditions for delivery, not simply intervene when a project encounters a problem. Think earlier and smarter, not harder.”

Build deliverability into scheme development

One of Ardent’s key recommendations is for a broader definition of project maturity. A technically developed scheme is not necessarily a deliverable one if important questions remain around land requirements, access, affected businesses, statutory interfaces, environmental constraints, stakeholder concerns, construction or operation.

Testing these factors progressively during optioneering allows them to influence the proposition rather than becoming issues to resolve once significant technical, financial or political commitments have already been made. The same principle should extend to business case and assurance processes, with greater focus on what has materially changed, which uncertainties remain and whether critical dependencies are being actively managed.

Engage while there is still something to influence

Proactive policy development also means reconsidering the role of engagement and consultation. Public involvement is most useful when it contributes to the development of a scheme, rather than principally testing decisions once they have substantially hardened.

Ardent’s response distinguishes between continuous engagement, formal consultation and communications, with each playing a different role while remaining aligned with design, business case, land and consenting activity.

Earlier engagement can surface local knowledge, impacts and competing requirements while there is still scope to respond, allowing formal consultation to have a clearer and more purposeful role in decision-making.

Create a more predictable route to delivery

The same thinking applies to consenting. Our experience suggests that delays associated with consenting cannot always be attributed to the statutory process itself. They can arise because information, decisions or dependencies across design, land, environmental assessment, stakeholders and legal powers have not been identified or resolved at the right stage.

Policy reform therefore has an opportunity to combine greater discipline before an application with greater predictability afterwards. Clearer expectations around scheme readiness, earlier management of objections and stronger integration between consent and delivery could provide greater confidence for promoters, affected parties and decision-makers alike.

Responsible acceleration

For policymakers, the opportunity is bigger than shortening individual processes. Mass transit programmes need to be considered as connected delivery systems in which strategy, business case, design, land, engagement, consenting, funding and construction develop alongside one another.

Faster infrastructure delivery should not come from pushing unresolved risk further down the programme. It should come from identifying uncertainty earlier, making better-informed decisions while change is still possible and developing schemes that are genuinely ready to progress. That is where proactive policy development can make the greatest difference.

Ardent welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Mass Transit Taskforce’s call for evidence and you can view our submission in full here.