1 January 0001 - 21 June 2012, 00:00-23:00 -

Y&H Privatising Roads - A Debate

Venue: Jacob’s Consultancy, 1 City Walk Leeds LS11 9DX

Time: 0830 hours (refreshments served from 0800)

Presenters: Professor Peter Mackie & Dr Greg Marsden

In his speech to the Institution of Civil Engineers in March 2012, Prime Minister Cameron set out some challenges for our profession. Britain’s infrastructure is falling behind other countries, we have maintenance backlogs and a lack of ambition for the future. There is an urgent need to set out a vision for future infrastructure needs and to establish how this will be funded. One of the contentions in the speech is that government cannot afford to fund the roads network as it currently does and therefore ways must be found to inject private capital into the national road network.

This debate revisits the key contentions underpinning the speech. Mackie and Marsden identify the questions that need answering. Can a plan emerge which is consistent with the long-term sustainable development of the UK? The audience is invited to join in a lively discussion about the extent to which privatisation or commercialisation of some or all of the road network should be part of that long-term future. These are questions on which DfT and Treasury are expected to provide answers by the autumn.

Peter Mackie is Research Professor of Transport Studies at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. His research interests lie in the field of economic regulation and appraisal of transport. He has worked on the economics of the bus industry for Government and operators. Economic appraisal of roads and transport policies has been a main focus, including work for the World Bank, EU, national and local governments. He was a member of the Government’s Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment, one of the academic ‘friends’ of the 2006 Eddington review of transport infrastructure and economic performance and played a leading role in the academic peer review of the New Approach to Appraisal, the NATA Refresh. He is currently a member of the HS2 Analytical Challenge Panel.

Dr Greg Marsden is the Director of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. He is a Senior Lecturer in Transport Policy and Strategy and his research interests relate to understanding decision-making processes within local and national government, issues of governance and acceptability. He joined Leeds after a two year period as specialist adviser to the UK Parliamentary Transport scrutiny committee. His current research projects cover the organisation of carbon management across the UK, the impacts of inter and intra regional governance structures on fiscal demand management policies and the role of disruption as a lens to understand the potential for radical behaviour change.

Venue: 1 City Walk is about 10 minutes walk from Leeds City Station.

If you wish to attend please contact Alan Carnall Branch Secretary no later than Monday 18 June to ensure adequate catering arrangements – carnall.2012@gmail.com.

N.B. Book early places limited to 30.