Infrastructure

摘要

After four consecutive years of significant declines between 2003 and 2006 in the infrastructure sector, output rose in 2007 and current workloads in the sector are high. Future prospects for infrastructure appear bright, despite the global economic slowdown, with a number of major projects and programmes set to provide significant growth over the next five years, especially within the water & sewerage and rail sectors, which account for 42% of total infrastructure output. Despite the tightening of government finances, the government has committed itself to a programme of development and redevelopment within the rail sector through Network Rail. Network Rail's business plan states that maintenance, renewal and enhancement expenditure within the rail sector will reach ￡5bn during 2008/09 and ￡6bn in 2009/10 and 2010/11 throughout the UK with redevelopments of various main stations and improvements at 150 intermediate stations, in addition to the array of new rail projects.