Government urged to set clearer infrastructure standards

Setting standards that operators are obligated to meet will help the public know what to expect during incidents and allow operators to plan and invest for the future.

The report analyses current standards across sectors including energy, digital, transport and water services and sets out what the government must prioritise.

Professor Jim Hall, National Infrastructure Commissioner said: 'With billions of pounds due to be spent over the next twenty years on new infrastructure to create a greener, more productive economy, the time is right for government to set out its expectations of operators in the face of growing resilience threats.

'Failing to do so will cost us all more in the long run, as expensive emergency measures have to be introduced to address service failures that could have been avoided by planned investment.

'None of us can expect every service to be 100 per cent reliable in the face of big shocks to the system but we should at least know what we can reasonably expect from different utilities when extreme events occur. That allows us as individuals – as well as other impacted infrastructure sectors – to plan for different eventualities.'