Prospects for Public Infrastructure Projects, Western Europe

Ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, investment in infrastructure construction in Western Europe had been gathering pace, increasing at an average of 3.3% a year on 2018-19, having remained stagnant over the previous few years. Amid the COVID-19 crisis and the severe impact that this has had on economies across the region, governments and public authorities will likely be aiming to advance spending on infrastructure projects to reinvigorate the construction industry and the wider economy - investment in infrastructure is generally considered to have a high multiplier effect, with the overall increase in economic value being higher than the value of direct investment itself.

According to the publisher, the public sector is funding around 70% of to the overall infrastructure project pipeline in markets in Western Europe, with a further 10% being funded under public-private financing arrangements. This presents governments with the opportunity to accelerate their investments and boost the development of infrastructure. However, given the high cost of various COVID-19 support packages for businesses and households, government finances in the region are likely to be under stress, and this could limit the capacity for a renewed effort to accelerate public investment.

Given the increased focus on infrastructure investment as a potential path to generate growth momentum to offset the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on economic activity, the publisher has assessed the potential for governments to succeed with such efforts as well as illustrating scenarios reflecting this

This report provides a detailed analysis of the prospects for an acceleration in public infrastructure investment, including a listing of key projects tracked by the publisher.

Scope

• This report provides an overall assessment of governments’/countries’ potential to move forward with (accelerate) their public infrastructure works by considering a series of key factors: the size of the pipeline of projects in each country, the composition of this pipeline in terms of stages of development, the political momentum behind infrastructure investment, the state of the government’s finance, and the economic recovery outlook.
• It also provides analysis based on the publisher's construction projects showing total project values and analysis by stage of development from announcement to execution.
• The analysis of the size of the project pipeline includes all public and public-private partnership projects as tracked by the publisher (including roads, bridges, railways, airports, ports, power, water and sewage infrastructure construction projects). It also provides an analysis by all projects at all stages of development from announcement to execution.
• The top infrastructure construction projects in tender, award and execution stages are listed by sector and value.
• It also lays out scenarios (“scheduled”, “risk”, and “accelerated”) to illustrate the possible variation in the potential for spending on the pipeline of projects

Reasons to Buy

• Assess all major markets in the region based on their prospects for accelerating infrastructure investment.
• Gain insight into the key policies and issues that will impact the prospects for public infrastructure projects.
• Review scenarios of potential spending on the project pipeline, and access a listing of the key projects being tracked.
• Plan campaigns by country based on specific project opportunities and align resources to the most attractive markets.