Rebuilding the Foundation:
Asset Management, the Key to Infrastructure Investment

Our annual conference this year will be focussing on: Rebuilding the Foundation: Asset Management, the Key to Infrastructure Investment and is to be held at Bletchley Park on 4^th June 2025

Asset management can have different meanings across various sectors, often leading to confusion. In 2004 there was a defining release to support the asset management movement in the UK and that was the publication by the County Surveyors Society together with LGTAG of the Framework for Highway Asset Management. Following this, in 2013, the Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP) to develop the Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Guidance Report for local authorities. This initiative was driven by the scrutiny over the management, investment, and performance levels of highway infrastructure. Then finally in 2015 the DfT released the Highways Maintenance Capital Funding – Incentive element Self-Assessment Questionnaire. This marked a turning point for asset management in the highway sector.

Over the last few years we have since lost our way, and the competing priorities we face as a sector are preventing us from fully benefiting from an asset management approach. Highways magazine wrote the following headline earlier this year: “MPs have called England’s local roads a ‘national embarrassment’ and slammed the Department for Transport (DfT) for not taking its responsibility for the issue seriously enough.” Our vision for the conference is to rebuild the foundation so that headlines like this don’t get repeated. It will also set the foundation for us if the DfT were to introduce an enhanced incentive element from 2025 to 2026 as a mechanism to ensure that best practice in sustainable highways asset management is adhered to. This conference will aim to rebuild our foundation knowledge in asset management and help reinvigorate our passion for the topic.

The conference will bring together key decision-makers and thought leaders in the sector to emphasise the importance of asset management and showcase best practices. These speakers will highlight the necessity of collaboration within the sector to achieve our goals and identify critical focus areas.

Emily See, Incoming President, says, “Our local communities rely on the highway network every day, even when they don’t realise it. However, the responsibility of maintaining this network falls to us. This is a significant responsibility, especially with conflicting priorities such as climate change and digital transformation. To deliver for our communities, we need to utilise asset management principles, trust the process, and commit to the right behaviours long-term.”

Hopefully the venue of Bletchley Park will help with the ‘enigma’ of solving our problems with the local highway network and inspire us all.