Country Overview
The United Kingdom is a world leader in infrastructure regulation and planning. National level infrastructure plans, detailed PPP preparation and economic impact assessments help the United Kingdom deliver infrastructure projects efficiently. In addition, the quality of the United Kingdom’s infrastructure governance systems and financial markets help to attract investment in infrastructure and improve project outcomes. However, significant government debt, low long-term GDP growth and the potential economic fallout from BREXIT and the COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to the United Kingdom’s ability to fund infrastructure investment.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
47,329 USD
Population
67.4 million persons
Infrastructure quality
88.9 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment
1.9% of GDP
Infrastructure gap
0.1% of GDP

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

11
4
79.5
Global Leader
1
-
81.2
Global Leader
7
1
89.2
Global Leader
1
-
99.4
Global Leader
12
9
92.0
Global Leader
49
19
27.8
Aspiring
15
2
68.5
Global Leader
4
-
77.5
Global Leader

Metric Overview

Strengths

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, there are no costs associated with starting a business in the United Kingdom, easing the entry of new firms.

Transparency in public procurement

The United Kingdom's public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents detail both procurement procedures and shortlisting criteria. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition.

Preparation of PPPs

At 96, the United Kingdom’s score on the preparation of PPPs is much higher than the High Income Countries average of 67. Good practices at the preparation stage help ensure that a decision is justified and that the procuring authority is ready to initiate the process.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, there are no costs associated with starting a business in the United Kingdom, easing the entry of new firms.

Transparency in public procurement

The United Kingdom's public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents detail both procurement procedures and shortlisting criteria. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition.

Preparation of PPPs

At 96, the United Kingdom’s score on the preparation of PPPs is much higher than the High Income Countries average of 67. Good practices at the preparation stage help ensure that a decision is justified and that the procuring authority is ready to initiate the process.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

High income country average

Opportunities to Grow

Long term GDP growth trend

The United Kingdom’s long-term GDP growth trend is 1.3%, below the High Income Countries' average of 1.8%. Long-term growth rates signal a country’s capacity to fund infrastructure from future growth. The COVID-19 pandemic may impact GDP growth trends.

Average procurement duration – transaction RFP

At 53 months, the United Kingdom has one of the highest periods of time between the public announcement of a tender and the awarding of a contract of all InfraCompass 2020 countries. Lengthy procurement processes add costs, risks and down time for infrastructure contractors.

Gross government debt

The United Kingdom's gross government debt sits at 86% of GDP, above the average of 74% for High Income Countries. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on debt levels may hinder the UK government's ability to fund infrastructure.

Long term GDP growth trend

The United Kingdom’s long-term GDP growth trend is 1.3%, below the High Income Countries' average of 1.8%. Long-term growth rates signal a country’s capacity to fund infrastructure from future growth. The COVID-19 pandemic may impact GDP growth trends.

Average procurement duration – transaction RFP

At 53 months, the United Kingdom has one of the highest periods of time between the public announcement of a tender and the awarding of a contract of all InfraCompass 2020 countries. Lengthy procurement processes add costs, risks and down time for infrastructure contractors.

Gross government debt

The United Kingdom's gross government debt sits at 86% of GDP, above the average of 74% for High Income Countries. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on debt levels may hinder the UK government's ability to fund infrastructure.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

High income country average

Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend

Funding capacity:
Gross government debt

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

United Kingdom

High Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

85.4 (-3.2)
68.3

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

82.8 (-1.1)
74.3

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

56.7
48.1

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

50.8 (-5.2)
61.9

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

United Kingdom

High Income Countries Average

85.4 (-3.2)
68.3
82.8 (-1.1)
74.3
Yes
-
56.7
48.1
50.8 (-5.2)
61.9
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

The United Kingdom is a world leader in infrastructure regulation and planning. National level infrastructure plans, detailed PPP preparation and economic impact assessments help the United Kingdom deliver infrastructure projects efficiently. In addition, the quality of the United Kingdom’s infrastructure governance systems and financial markets help to attract investment in infrastructure and improve project outcomes. However, significant government debt, low long-term GDP growth and the potential economic fallout from BREXIT and the COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to the United Kingdom’s ability to fund infrastructure investment.
GDP per capita

47,329 USD

Population

67.4 million persons

Infrastructure quality

88.9 (0-100 best)

Infrastructure investment

1.9% of GDP

Infrastructure gap

0.1% of GDP

GDP

2,744 USD billion

GDP growth rate

1.2%

GDP per capita growth rate

-3.6%

Gini coefficient

33.2 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

86.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

1.8%

Summary credit rating

92.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

3.8%

Urbanisation ratio

83.0% of total population

Road connectivity

91.3 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

4.9 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

4.3 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

5.3 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

5.2 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

7.4% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

0.3% of population

Reliability of water supply

6.4 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.8 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

96.9 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

39.6 per 100 population