Publication of New Zealand’s 30‑year infrastructure strategy draws directly on the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Enabling Better Infrastructure (EBI) programme, which promotes outcome‑based planning, whole‑life cost analysis and resilience to climate risks. The plan uses EBI’s structured decision‑making framework to prioritise transport, water and energy investments, embedding asset management over multiple renewal cycles rather than single‑project funding. For practitioners, this signals growing international convergence on common planning tools and metrics, easing benchmarking of service levels, risk appetite and long‑term performance across jurisdictions.

The Treasury’s updated Green Book, issued in February, overhauls appraisal guidance for UK infrastructure by moving beyond narrow benefit–cost ratios and gross value added to include distributional impacts, place-based outcomes and long‑term resilience. New requirements to quantify social value, net‑zero alignment and climate adaptation are expected to change how options are sifted and how business cases are structured for major schemes such as rail upgrades, flood defences and urban regeneration. For engineers, this signals closer scrutiny of whole‑life carbon, asset performance under future climate scenarios and benefits to left‑behind regions.

SME house-builders are sharply curbing speculative development, with 70% of Home Builders Federation members saying current market conditions limit their ability to start new sites and 27% expecting to cut land acquisitions in the next three months. Only 41% expect to increase housing starts in the next quarter, sentiment is strongly negative in London (57% negative, 14% positive), and firms building fewer than 75 homes a year are the least optimistic. Developers face compounding cost pressures from a doubling Landfill Tax, a new £340m-per-year levy on new homes, Biodiversity Net Gain, the Residential Property Developer Tax, Building Safety Levy and the forthcoming Future Homes Standard adding an estimated 3–8% to build costs.