Infrastructure Policy Development

Urban Planners: 3 Hidden Levers That Have the Ability to Direct Urban Growth Too often, urban growth is treated as an inevitable byproduct of markets and demographics; something governments merely react to. But this overlooks a striking reality. Policy makers already hold powerful levers that can fundamentally redirect how cities expand and evolve. The problem, though, is that these levers are routinely underused while cities sprawl, fragment, or miss opportunities for inclusive growth. Here are three levers that deserve far more attention: ✅Land Value Capture Every major public investment (think new metro line or revitalized waterfronts) increases surrounding land values. Yet in most cities, this windfall flows almost entirely to private landowners. Few policy instruments have such untapped potential as land value capture, whether through betterment levies, special assessment districts, or development charges. Harnessing even a small share of this uplift could finance improvements that make cities more livable. 🇭🇰Case Study: Hong Kong’s Rail + Property model finances new metro lines by capturing land value increases from development rights above stations. ✅Zoning for Flexibility Rigid, single-use zoning reflects a 20th-century mindset. Cities today face rapid shifts (hybrid work, changing retail, new housing demands). Flexible zoning, enabling mixed-use, incremental densification, and adaptive reuse, is less about deregulation than about building adaptability into the DNA of urban form. 🇯🇵Case Study: Tokyo’s permissive zoning system has allowed districts like Shibuya to reinvent themselves multiple times over, accommodating new industries and lifestyles. ✅Targeted Infrastructure Sequencing Infrastructure doesn’t just serve growth; it steers it. The order and location of investments can channel development into priority corridors, curb leapfrog sprawl, and reduce long-term service costs. Sequencing infrastructure deliberately (rather than following demand reactively) transforms it from a cost center into a growth management tool. Few policies have greater power to shape a city’s spatial logic at relatively low political cost. 🇧🇷Case Study: Curitiba famously guided its urban expansion by sequencing bus rapid transit corridors ahead of development, creating dense, transit-oriented growth patterns. The overlooked truth is that cities don’t just grow; they follow signals. These three levers are among the most powerful signals policy makers can send, yet they remain underdeployed in most urban contexts. —————— I post about Urban Economics & the hidden side of cities to equip Urban Planners to make more informed decisions. Follow me for more insights. #urbaneconomy #urbanplanning #cities #sustainableurbandevelopment

Excellent to see the launch in Parliament of APPG for Project Delivery’s report to improve infrastructure delivery. A pleasure to contribute from UCL’s Megaproject Delivery Centre. I will strongly advocate for two key points: ✅ 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 – without infrastructure professionals, both in capacity and capability, we won’t deliver anything. ✅ 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 – we need a public database capturing both for major infrastructure projects. The strategic action to build a public database could offer excellent value for money, as multiple parts of government often seek the same information. It would not only transform the UK, but also lead the world by example, as many countries look to the UK Government as a centre of excellence in #infrastructure delivery. 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 - 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: ✅ 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲 “Take urgent action to ensure the country has the skills and jobs needed to deliver on infrastructure. The Government should consider establishing a National Infrastructure Delivery Skills Roadmap to establish a consistent talent pipeline aligned with long-term national infrastructure priorities. Actions such as the ringfencing of funding for support training and apprenticeships in project management should be considered through routes such as the Growth and Skills Levy.” “In 2024, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee warned of the continuing challenges faced in developing technical, engineering and project management skills needed to deliver the UK’s infrastructure ambitions.”   ✅ 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁 “From policy to delivery, the “Golden Thread of Project Data” needs to be preserved and reused for the public good. To achieve this, there needs to be a cultural shift in how we view data, moving from data as a compliance burden or a reporting exercise to a strategic asset which enables smarter infrastructure delivery. It also requires a more open and collaborative approach to project data, one which rejects the urge to lock data away and instead allows it to be turned into insights which can be captured for the benefit of future projects. Evidence pointed towards the need for mandatory data strategies which outline the data needed, how it aligns with data standards, and how it will be organised, managed, governed and shared. Improving data could also produce wider benefits. For example, in one oral evidence session, we heard how better data could allow the Government to increase its ability to communicate its strengths in delivering national infrastructure projects. Other evidence pointed to the ability of data to provide long-term analysis of costs and benefits of an infrastructure project by extending data collection throughout the infrastructure's lifecycle, even after the project has been completed."

The world's infrastructure is undergoing a fundamental transformation. I've been watching where policy and capital are flowing—and a pattern is emerging that founders should pay attention to. The UN just released its SDG-9 framework for 2026. It's a roadmap for where governments and development finance will direct trillions over the next decade. Here's what I'm seeing: 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘀. The new stack has three layers: 𝟭. 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 Connectivity, AI systems, data governance, digital identity. This is now considered as essential as power grids. A vast majority of the world has never used AI—that's a massive gap waiting to be filled. Startup opportunities: AI for industrial operations, digital public infrastructure platforms, data systems for emerging markets. 𝟮. 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 Clean energy, circular manufacturing, critical minerals processing. The push is to help developing economies move up the value chain—not just export raw materials. Startup opportunities: Recycling and materials recovery tech, supply chain traceability, clean industrial technologies. 𝟯. 𝗕𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 New financing models combining public, private, and development capital. Risk-sharing mechanisms. Patient capital. SDG-aligned investment standards. Startup opportunities: Infrastructure analytics, climate resilience metrics, platforms connecting projects to blended finance. Here's the investor lens: When policy frameworks and capital flows converge, markets emerge. Companies that operate where these trends meet often gain advantages that are difficult to copy. The gap between where infrastructure is today and where it needs to be by 2030 is massive. That gap is where startups will be needed. Which of these three layers are you building in—or watching most closely? Your comments and reposts help build our community.

🇺🇲 In December, I stood before the Congressional Robotics Caucus with a simple message: America's infrastructure investment is massive, but money alone won't solve our capacity crisis. We need Physical AI. And we need a national policy framework to accelerate it. Today, the White House delivered exactly that. The new AI legislative recommendations call for regulatory sandboxes, federal preemption over a patchwork of state AI laws, small business support for AI adoption, workforce training programs, and sector-specific regulation through existing agencies rather than new bureaucracy. At Path Robotics, we've lived this challenge firsthand. 157,000+ welders approaching retirement. 80% of welding still done manually. Customers turning away tens of millions in orders because they can't find labor. Our AI-powered autonomous welding cells are already changing that equation with some customers seeing as much as 17x output, 99% first pass yield, 15% of the cost per inch. But technology alone isn't enough. Manufacturers need long-term policy certainty to invest in advanced automation at scale. This framework is a great start. Hopeful for what's ahead. Path Robotics #AI #Manufacturing #PhysicalAI #PathRobotics #Policy #Welding #Automation #IndustrialAutomation #PhysicalAI #Energy #Infrastructure

When it’s released in coming days, the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan is expected to outline strategies for expanding America’s AI infrastructure; protecting our technological edge in the global competition to ensure democratic AI prevails; and scaling AI in a way we believe can be leveraged to democratize economic opportunity by putting powerful tools in the hands of many, not concentrated in the hands of a few Infrastructure is destiny, and the plan is expected to focus on the importance of modernizing the grid, streamlining permitting, and generating more energy to power the data centers and advanced compute AI requires The plan is likely to speak to the challenge that we can’t sustain US leadership on AI without bold, scaled investment. The math is clear and unforgiving: AI data centers consume a lot of power, and slow permitting and inadequate grid capacity risk leaving US companies and Americans behind. China, by contrast, is moving with striking speed to build energy generation capacity and AI clusters To be clear, the energy exists–including modern sources of electrons. We need the will to build. Without it, we’ll risk ceding the Intelligence Age to autocratic AI and constrain our capacity to make sure the most people possible can take part in the productivity gains of this era OpenAI has long argued for urgent action. In January, our US Economic Blueprint outlined policy recommendations to strengthen US AI leadership and competitiveness while ensuring broad access. Our March OSTP submission builds on that agenda with proposals spanning national security, infrastructure, energy, and the freedom to innovate and learn. We’re focused on democratizing AI’s economics by putting advanced tools in more people’s hands History shows why. The Rural Electrification Act and the Interstate Highway System transformed opportunity because they reached every corner of the country. AI infrastructure should follow that same playbook: expanding access so that students, small businesses, workers and local officials everywhere can do more We’re also beginning to see the emergence of global rails for responsible, democratic AI—led by the US and advanced by allied nations in ways that benefit everyone, not just a few The EU’s new Code of Practice turns the high‑level principles of the bloc’s AI Act into practical standards for AI, echoing many of the safety approaches we’ve long been modeling (through our Preparedness Framework and partnerships with the US CASI and UKAISI)—and it does so across all 27 EU states while also seeking to ensure little tech has a simple path forward These steps are building a network of democratic AI rails that will spur adoption, fuel innovation, and unlock enormous productivity and prosperity if we choose to build boldly The US is thinking big about AI—and that’s what this moment demands. The choices we make today will determine whether AI's benefits are available to everyone, or concentrated in the hands of a few

AI can play a real role in addressing the capacity challenges facing construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure if public policies can drive this forward. Today, we released Autodesk's AI public policy recommendations alongside a video I recorded on responsible AI adoption with the Business Software Alliance. Governments can help accelerate AI adoption and digital transformation in these industries that are critical to economic growth. Our focus is on clear, practical steps policymakers can take now, including supporting digital design and construction in public infrastructure and manufacturing, fostering data sharing to solve public challenges, establishing risk-based AI guardrails and standards, and investing in workforce programs so people are equipped to use these technologies effectively. Getting this right requires balance. Public policy should enable innovation while ensuring AI is developed and deployed responsibly. Delaying action only makes it harder to put the right guardrails in place as AI adoption accelerates. I encourage you to watch the video and read our recommendations to see how thoughtful policy can help scale AI responsibly and expand capacity across the industries that build the world. https://lnkd.in/gYHA2TkJ

Riyadh's Comprehensive Infrastructure Plan: A Key Pillar of Vision 2030 and the Secret to Rapid Execution 🔅 A Transformational Step in Urban Planning and Development Saudi Arabia has unveiled its first comprehensive infrastructure plan for Riyadh, marking a strategic move to reduce traffic congestion, enhance spending efficiency, and ensure project sustainability. 🔅 Seamless Coordination for Efficient Execution This plan serves as a framework to organize all infrastructure projects, helping to identify conflicts between overlapping initiatives, set priorities, and reschedule conflicting projects to ensure seamless execution within defined timelines. 🔅 A Strong Governance and Planning Model Developed with an advanced engineering and planning methodology, the plan includes: 🔸 Reviewing and approving over 837 development plans 🔸 Restructuring phases of 1,737 projects 🔸 Achieving over 100,000 working hours 🔸 Conducting more than 80 coordination workshops 🔸 Automating 66,000 pre-coordinated permits for 2025 The plan reflects a robust governance framework and inter-agency coordination, demonstrated through: 🔸 Agile and responsive management, with 72 representatives from service entities ensuring swift decision-making. 🔸 Digital transformation and process automation, issuing 66,000 pre-coordinated permits for 2025 to enhance efficiency. 🔸 Optimized resource utilization, prioritizing projects to prevent conflicts and improve spending effectiveness. 🔸 Accelerated execution in line with urban expansion, as infrastructure permits surged from 50,000 in 2017 to over 150,000 in 2024. 🔅 Leveraging AI and Smart Planning Strategies One of the key features of this plan is its integration of artificial intelligence and advanced planning strategies, ensuring smarter, more efficient infrastructure management. By harnessing data-driven insights and AI-powered coordination, the plan enhances predictability, decision-making, and long-term sustainability. 🔅 Core Objectives of the Comprehensive Plan The initiative is designed to achieve: 🔸 Enhanced efficiency in planning and execution 🔸 Adoption of environmentally friendly practices 🔸 More effective and precise project implementation 🔸 Strengthened regulatory oversight and project compliance 🔅 Riyadh: A Smart Urban Development Model Expanding over 2,000% in recent decades and now home to 7+ million residents, Riyadh is advancing integrated infrastructure planning, ensuring faster execution, optimized resources, and enhanced quality of life in line with Vision 2030. 🔅 Strong Governance for Efficient Execution This plan fosters seamless collaboration among 15+ governmental entities under a unified leadership council, driving rapid, conflict-free implementation and optimal resource utilization. 🚀 With visionary execution, cities grow smarter, faster, and more advanced! #Riyadh #SaudiVision2030 #InfrastructureDevelopment #ArtificialIntelligence #SmartCities #Sustainability

At the Inter-American Development Bank's Infrastructure Sector, we are committed to turning infrastructure into a lever for opportunity across #LatinAmerica and the #Caribbean.   📕 Prepared jointly with The World Bank and for Brazil's G20 Presidency, our new report—𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬—converts evidence and case studies into actionable policy.   🔍 Key recommendations: ✅ Effective access must consider the availability, quality, and affordability of infrastructure services. ✅ Mobilize more and better investment, while reducing lifecycle costs through efficient provision and maintenance. ✅ Pair transparent tariffs with carefully designed subsidies to ensure the affordability of the services. ✅ Leverage technology to reduce provision costs and improve the targeting of subsidies.   💡Explore the findings: https://lnkd.in/eKxck5FS and join the conversation on turning infrastructure into a pathway out of poverty.   Stephane Straub, Lisa Bagnoli, Claudio J. Rojas   #Infrastructure #Energy #Transport #Water #Sanitation #Access #PovertyReduction

#Europe is finally waking up to the strategic importance of #digitalinfrastructure. With billions committed and policy shifting fast, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future of #AI, #energy, and #datasovereignty. Here’s why it matters—and how we’re building it. ⸻ Europe 🇪🇺 is at a pivotal inflection point. Recent government policies are not just promising—they’re fundamentally reshaping the digital infrastructure landscape. The momentum from policymakers across the continent is unmistakable: • European Commission: 💶 €200B mobilized via the #InvestAI initiative for AI “factories” and sovereign infrastructure. 🧠 Data center and compute capacity now a central pillar of Europe’s AI and competitiveness agenda. • Germany: ⚡️ CDU-SPD coalition puts energy and infrastructure at the center of national strategy. ⚙️ Commitments to faster permitting, grid resilience, carbon management. 🏗️ €500B federal infrastructure fund = massive tailwind for data center growth. • United Kingdom: 🏛️ Data centers designated as critical national infrastructure. 🚀 Streamlined planning + new AI Growth Zone to attract sovereign AI investment. ⸻ This isn’t just policy—it’s industrial strategy. And it matters. Without bold investment, Europe cannot lead in AI, the energy transition, or digital sovereignty. These priorities demand a modern, scalable, sustainable infrastructure backbone. This policy momentum accelerates Europe’s readiness for AI and supports grid decarbonisation and long-term energy security. ⸻ At DTCP our investment thesis has always been rooted in recognising and acting on these structural shifts. We’re proud that our portfolio companies are building this future: • maincubes SECURE DATACENTERS Building next-gen data centers in Frankfurt and Berlin—serving hyperscalers, government, and enterprise workloads with sustainability, sovereignty, and security at the core. • GreenScale Data Centres Developing integrated data center + energy campuses designed for long-term AI and cloud growth—while contributing to local and national communities. ⸻ This is Europe’s infrastructure decade. We’re proud to be building it. #AI #DigitalInfrastructure #Sustainability #DataCenters #DTCP #maincubes #GreenScale #EuropeDigital #NextGenInfrastructure Philipp von Bismarck Zahl Limbuwala Waldemar Maurer Tim Hofmann Oliver Menzel Daniel Thomas Jean-François Berche

After years of underinvestment and piecemeal planning, the UK government has finally unveiled what could be the most comprehensive infrastructure strategy in a generation — a 10-year plan backed by at least £725 billion of public investment. 📈 But what does it actually mean in practice? In this episode, I’m joined by James Corrigan, Managing Director for Infrastructure at Turner & Townsend, to unpack the ambition behind this milestone strategy — and the hard realities of turning it into delivery on the ground. 👉 Listen in at: https://lnkd.in/ebH9NUH6  - or find it wherever you get your podcasts — search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple or Google. 🎙️ We discuss: - How this new approach could reshape UK infrastructure planning and delivery - The challenges of aligning long-term policy with political cycles - The role of digital, climate resilience, and regional regeneration - What this all means for investors, local authorities and communities alike I t’s a timely and vital conversation for anyone involved in the built environment. #Infrastructure #UKInfrastructure #PublicInvestment #TurnerAndTownsend #InfrastructureStrategy #TheInfrastructurePodcast #JamesCorrigan #NetZero #RegionalGrowth #BuiltEnvironment Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)