The writer is chair of the Public Private Partnership Commission, former chair of the National Infrastructure Commission and the Olympic Delivery Authority
As Andy Burnham stood outside the door of 10 Downing Street, he spoke of the collective failure of politicians to meet the challenges of the modern era. He talked about the need to do better and deliver for a public clamouring for change. Few areas illustrate the need for reform more than infrastructure.
In my lifetime I have seen 19 different prime ministers and extraordinary progress in UK infrastructure. As a country, we deployed the first commercial nuclear power plant in the world. My former company built the first 72 miles of the M1 in just over two years and the first North Sea oil platforms. The UK dug one of the longest undersea tunnels in the world to connect to France and I led the project to connect it to central London. Hundreds of kilometres have been added to the Tube and we have seen the first serious upgrade to the Victorian sewerage system thanks to the Thames Tideway Tunnel.