The National Infrastructure Commission has joined with the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses to press the government to take urgent action on a dozen key infrastructure decisions – a third of them in energy.

Lord Andrew Adonis, chair of the  National Infrastructure Commission called on the Government to ensure that Brexit and a hung parliament do not delay or defer infrastructure projects which are critical to the UK’s competitiveness and productivity. He said, “Brexit and the hung parliament must not lead to dither and delay on the key infrastructure challenges facing the country.

““All of these have been agreed in principle, but require decisive action to get them moving in the new Parliament. They ought to be at the top of ministers’ in-trays, and they ought not to linger there a day more than necessary.”

The four energy challenges listed in the ‘top twelve’ are:

Flexible power systems: by end September 2017 the Government should publish its plan for smart energy systems,  including the actions it will take to enable greater deployment of electricity storage, interconnectors and demand flexibility, .

Renewable energy: by October the Government should publish its firm forward plans for supporting renewable energy, at least to 2025, including the use of the remaining funds from the £730m agreed in the last Parliament. It should publish  specific longer-term goals in the Autumn Budget.

Decarbonisation of energy: by October the Government should publish its strategy for the decarbonisation of energy. It should set out its trajectory for the future level of the “carbon price floor” in the Autumn Budget.

Nuclear industry: by the end of 2017 the Government should publish a strategy and timetable for replacing the services provided by the UK’s membership of Euratom, to support Hinkley Point C and other nuclear projects