An interview with Ruth Todd
Curshaw recently spent time with Ruth Todd, who has recently been appointed as Rolls-Royce SMR’s Operations and Supply Chain Director. The Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is a ‘factory built’ nuclear power plant that will draw upon standard nuclear energy technology to generate 470MW of low carbon energy. As the UK’s first home-grown nuclear technology in a generation, it will provide enough consistent baseload electricity to power a million homes for at least 60 years.
Previously she was HS2’s Chief Commercial Officer and Programme Director of the COVID-19 Vaccines Task Force.
The recent budget announcement was light on detail for key infrastructure spend, with many of the critical infrastructure investment decisions needed being pushed back to the Spring, when Part Two of the Spending Review will be completed.
We sat with Ruth to discuss the key questions Government should be deliberating as they develop their 10-year infrastructure plan, and begin budget deliberations for phase two and, in particular, two main questions:
What should be the prioritised infrastructure-related activities for the new government be?
What are the most important components that a new government policy on delivering infrastructure in partnership with the private sector should contain and focus on?
Ruth’s experience and expertise offer a fascinating perspective on this topic, which we summarise below.
The first infrastructure activities the new Government should focus on
Communicate clearly
For infrastructure in particular, Ruth’s firm view is that clarity is key - indecision is murderous and wastes huge amounts of Government and Industry money and time. An MPA report in September this year about the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 highlights the potentially significant costs that can be incurred due to political turmoil to the broader public and industry. The Government needs to clearly communicate their plans to all stakeholders, public and private, and give clarity to what they will and will not fund.
A commitment to a 10-year Infrastructure strategy announced in the run-up to the election was a highly welcome development. It would be helpful for this to be communicated quickly to safeguard infrastructure from the perils of the historic ‘cycle of doom’ that uncertainty creates.
Commit to investing
Ruth notes that Government has a significant incentive to avoid this outcome, prioritising economic growth through infrastructure investment. Crucially, this can be generated from a mix of private and public expenditure such as Rolls-Royce SMR. This should be an attractive prospect for a fiscally constrained government that is committed to delivering a strengthened economy.
While Government has a responsibility to carry out diligence in contracting, and ensure value for the taxpayer, there is a need to ensure that delays to decision making don't send costs skyrocketing or result in missed growth opportunities.
Build skills
The ‘chicken and egg’ issue of training and maintaining a sufficiently skilled workforce cannot be neglected, argues Ruth. Industry bodies have recently warned that the UK faces a skills shortage that could thwart even the most carefully considered Infrastructure strategy. It is vital that a holistic approach is taken that considers not only the Infrastructure the UK needs but also the ‘how’ of its delivery and maintaining a solid pipeline of work to ensure those skills are retained and nurtured.
Contract sensibly
This all needs to be founded upon sensible, balanced contracting. This includes allocating risk appropriately and equally creating the right incentives. Poor performance should never be rewarded and, similarly, good margins for doing the right thing ought to be designed into contracting models. All of this will help to generate a positive, more effective and capable supply ecosystem to deliver the UK’s infrastructure needs and growth agenda.
The most important components of a new Government Public Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure policy
Pipeline and Industrial Strategy Implementation
The Government needs to develop a clear pipeline of projects, and state how much money is going to be allocated – and stick to the plan. This should also align to their Industrial Strategy, driving a positive change across industry sectors and their infrastructure. Ruth argues that relaunching the Industrial Strategy Council with a fresh mandate, as trailed in the King’s Speech aiming to ‘accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure’, may go some way to delivering on both, in ensuring there is accountability in adhering to a policy that commits to this.
Market Engagement and Increased Alignment
This should be accompanied by commercial structures that are designed in tandem with the markets they interact with. There is an opportunity now, in Ruth’s view, to design new governance and procurement arrangements that incentivise all parties to work towards the same goal, rather than parties seeking to advance their own agendas in isolation. This stems in part from public sector governance processes that can be too internally focused and not consider the bigger picture. Balancing the needs of all parties will help to ameliorate this.
Simplified Government Ownership and Accountability
Ruth believes that this should all be anchored by finally giving PPP a clear home in government. Multiple departments and agencies are all involved in PPP. This should be condensed into a single location to allow for effective ownership of solutions, and accountability in achieving intended outcomes. Labour’s commitment to merging the NIC and the IPA, and the resulting body, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) may represent a good opportunity to do so.
In short, Ruth believes that the new Government needs to deliver a clear plan, built upon the foundations of a stable financial commitment and effectively trained workforce to deliver the infrastructure that Britain both needs and deserves.
Many thanks to Ruth for her time. We’d be interested in hearing any thoughts on this blogpost - please get in touch at hello@curshaw.com if you would like to discuss them.