The Scottish Government

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4. Assessing the Infrastructure Need

4.1. Scope

This SBC has attempted to consider the infrastructure need of the whole Scottish public sector. Details of budgeted and aspirational infrastructure spend for the years from 2008-9 to 2017-18 have been collated from a variety of sources from across the public sector in Scotland, including the Scottish Government (covering agencies and NDPBs), Local Authorities, and NHS bodies. This work has been undertaken in parallel with the formulation of the Government's recently published Infrastructure Investment Plan ( IIP). In this document, an attempt has been made to distinguish between budgeted spend, i.e. amounts which have formal approval, and aspirational spend - amounts bodies would like to invest in infrastructure, but may not be able to due to budget constraints. The nature of inputs received has been varied, especially in relation to aspirational spend and in years beyond the current spending review period. The inclusion of aspirational spend, and break down by infrastructure sectors recognisable to the markets rather than strictly by portfolio, prevents direct comparison with the IIP.

4.2. Why Assess the Infrastructure Investment Need

In developing the concept of the Scottish Futures Trust it has been necessary to understand a long term view of the public sector infrastructure requirement in Scotland in order to:

• Determine the investment "throughput" that a Scottish Futures Trust would be expected to assist deliver;
• Understand the investment value by sector such that models that have sector specific applicability can be better understood;
• Test the potential "value added" delivered by concepts evaluated across different sectors;
• Reflect the long term nature of any infrastructure investment by extrapolating the infrastructure requirement;
• Assess the ability of a Scottish Futures Trust to meet aspirational infrastructure requirements along with those currently budgeted.

4.3. Infrastructure Need Summary

The following table summarises the value of the infrastructure need for each of the next ten years by sector. Planned spend in the earlier years largely consists of formally approved budgets. The figures for the years from 2011-12 necessarily have a stronger aspirational element, and are more likely to be subject to change. Where forward information was not available no figure has been included which accounts for an apparent downturn in annual investment need over 10 years, which may be misleading.

The full details from which the summary table is drawn can be found in Annex 1.

Table 2. Scotland's Infrastructure Needs - Summary, 2008/09 to 2017/18

Notes: This table includes aspirational spend and spending by Local Authorities, privately financed bodies and projects and therefore exceeds the capital budget allocation in chapter 3.

* - The approach to deriving these figures has led to an anomalous figure for LA investment in
2010/11. This is recognised but has not been resolved in the time scales available for the
SBC.

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