The Infrastructure Podcast

In this episode  we are talking about electric vehicle charging and the challenge of creating the truly integrated and customer friendly charging network needed to support the growth of EVs
My guest  is Asif Ghafoor, chief executive of BE.EV, one of the UK’s leading charging networks and someone who I’d say is pretty out there when it comes to honest appraisals of the state of the EV market and the fragmented "wild west” charging networks that now litter out towns cities and service stations. 
I last spoke to Asif on the podcast three years ago in Episode 24 back in July 2023 -  seems like yesterday! But BE.EV is now five years ago, and arguable since we last spoke the sector finally starting to grow up- less of the “I’ll have a go” mentally; more strategic, customer and business focus.
Certainly BE.EV is expanding and leading the charge. In February this year Asif completed a landmark acquisition of European energy giant Mer’s UK public charging network, adding over 1,600 charging bays across 450+ sites and seeing the business effectively shift from its northern roots to become truly national networks with large numbers of charging sites added across the south and now boasting over 2,500 bays.
And still backed by Octopus Energy Generation’s Sky Fund, the company has established itself as the UK’s second top-rated rapid and ultra-rapid charging network, combining an impressive 99% reliability rate with a deeply customer-centric approach.
BE.EV also recently led a pioneering partnership with Leasing.com which integrated BE.EV directly into the consumer car-buying journey, demystifying public charging at the exact moment drivers choose their next vehicle.
BE.EV’s guiding philosophy remains fiercely simple: drivers shouldn’t have to become charging experts.
So let’s explore the reality behind these claims and headlines, find out what’s changed over the last five years and perhaps unpack how charging networks can actually still underpin the UK’s low carbon future. 
Resources
BE.EV website
SMMT statistics
Octopus Energy Generation
Episode 24 with Asif Ghafoor - "Building the EV revolution " - 2023
Times interview with Asif

In this episode we return to the critical issues surrounding the financing of infrastructure – and specifically how private investment can be levered in to support the global ambition for green energy transition.
It is clear that the global push toward net-zero is fundamentally a challenge of capital mobilisation. While global institutional investors sit on an estimated $100 trillion in assets, less than 5% of this wealth flows into sustainable or green development. 
This must change if governments around the world are to meet their ambitions for a green energy transition. 
My guest today is Georgie Skipper, the founder of infrastructure investment consultancy Lucetia, someone who has worked on one of most ambitious clean energy project ever attempted and who has spent the last few decades wrestling with the accelerating global green energy ambition. 
Because energy transition is a huge global challenge; according to a recent report by the Australian Government, the emerging South east Asian region alone faces an estimated $3 trillion infrastructure investment gap by 2040 in meeting it’s vital clean energy targets – targets that are crucial to the economy and its decarbonisation.
And this kind of investment gap is a global issue; one that she has been highlighting at the recent Financing the Energy Transition in Southeast Asia series hosted by Bentley Systems and Lucetia Group in partnership with the Investor Group on Climate Change.
The most recent of these meetings was held during the London Climate Action Week in June and before that at last year’s COP30 meeting in Belém, Brazil.
And it is these practical solutions and investment in so-called First of a kind technologies to bridge the gap between strategic policy intent and practical, on-the-ground project bankability, that Georgie hopes to employ to solve complex green investment challenges – not least given that Lucetia was recently appointed by Singapore’s Energy Market Authority to develop the policy and investment guidelines for a new submarine power cable. 
So let’s hear more about the market, the challenges, and we can smooth and derisk the global sustainable and green energy investment challenge.
Resources
Lucetia Group
IEA report of Southeast Asia energy
Transforming Infrastructure Performance summit
Investor Group on Climate Change
Australian Government report on SE Asian investment
World Meteorological Organization
Green Grids Initiative
SunCable project
MIT Sloane School of management

This is another episode recorded live at UKREiiF, the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds. 
My guest is Louisa Finlay, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer at contractor Kier Group. Our conversation builds on a panel session that she hosted to discuss the construction sector’s digital mindset and skills needed to power up infrastructure delivery.
Because the reality is that the construction sector has long been criticised as a digital laggard and remaining tethered to legacy processes. However, this narrative is rapidly shifting. 
We are moving on from the era of digital experimentation. Today, the use of data and digital technology is no longer an optional efficiency driver but a core commercial imperative.
Tier 1 contractors and their supply chains face mounting pressures to deliver complex infrastructure under tighter regulatory and financial scrutiny. In response the modern construction landscape is being reshaped – like it or not - by cloud-based data platforms, generative AI, predictive analytics, and digital twins. 
Yet, the true barrier to this revolution is rarely technical. Instead, the industry is grappling with the need for cultural change, a widening skills gap, and deeply entrenched commercial structures that actively disincentivise data sharing.
To unlock the value of technology, the sector must treat data not as an exhaust product of construction, but as a critical asset with its own lifecycle. 
So let’s find out what Louisa is doing about these challenges
Resources
Kier Group
UKREiiF
National Highways digital strategy
UK Construction Skills Mission Board
UK Infrastructure Pipeline
UK NISTA

This episode was recorded live at UKREiiF, the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds. 
My guest  is Peter Hogg, Country Director for the UK and Ireland at Arcadis and we are going to spend the next few moment drilling into Peter’s perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing the UK infrastructure market as we attempt to invest for the future.
And Peter is a great person to pose these questions to. Having just been elevated to run the UK and Ireland division, he has nearly three decades of experience at the coal face, delivering some of London’s most significant infrastructure programmes, including the Jubilee Line Extension, St Pancras International, and Heathrow’s Terminal 5. 
Today he is being challenged to define Arcadis’ strategy and set a clear vision for the future to embrace these challenges and opportunities – a vision that will hopefully help the UK to delivery the sustainable, resilient infrastructure that is critical to the UK’s future success, driving economic growth, jobs and better lives across the regions and communities of the UK.
Resources
Arcadis website
UKREiiF
UK National Infrastructure Service Transformation Authority
UK Infrastructure Pipeline
10 year Infrastructure strategy

In this episode my guest is Chris McDonald, MP for Stockton North and Minister for Industry, a brief which, of course, includes construction.
Lots to discuss, not least since we have just past the first anniversary of the creation of NISTA – the UK’s National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). 
NISTA was set up to accelerate delivery, unlock private investment, and improve project efficiency and last June was handed responsibility for delivering the government’s ambitious 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, shifting policy vision into a £718 billion public and private sector delivery reality. 
Lots of opportunity for the construction sector; but the challenges are mounting: a persistent skills gap, volatile supply chains, stringent new building safety regulations following the Grenfell tragedy, inflation pushing up costs and the accelerating challenge of meeting net zero goals.
Chris McDonald MP is the latest in the long line of Construction Ministers charged with supporting the industry to deliver this ambition. And as Minister for Industry his responsibilities go wider of course as he helps to delivery the Industrial Strategy, overseeing a portfolio that bridges the gap between raw industrial capacity and national renewal.
So much to talk about – let’s crack on
Resources
10 year infrastructure strategy
Infrastructure delivery pipeline
UK National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)
Government's 1.5M housing target
Construction Skills Mission Board
Construction Leadership Council