Investment and procurement

The Government is committed to reversing the legacy of under-investment in the nation's infrastructure. Major increases in capital investment in recent years have delivered continued improvements in health, education, transport and housing. This investment is set to continue, with public sector net investment set to be to 2¼ of GDP from 2007 onwards - almost four times the level in 1997.

Departmental Asset Management Strategies

To take full advantage of the huge increase in investment over the last decade, the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review will adopt a new approach to Asset Management. The centrepiece of this new approach is the development of a unique Asset Management Strategy (AMS) for each department. This will outline how the department plans to maximise the value of its existing asset base and improve future investment decisions. Departmental AMS will focus on:

Improving the management and utilisation of the assets departments use to deliver public services;
Basing future investment decisions on a more complete assessment of the condition and performance of the existing asset base;
Taking a zero-based approach to capital budgeting, more fully realising the benefits of separate resource and capital budgets; and
Disposing of assets no longer required for service delivery.

These Asset Management Strategies will build upon Departments Investment Strategies, which were introduced in the 2000 Spending Review. The AMS's will set out each department's investment plans to deliver the scale and quality of capital stock needed to underpin its objectives