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UK rises in rankings for foreign investment

22 Sep 14 An assessment of the world’s best countries for investing in infrastructure has put the UK in the top 10.

Quantity surveyors from construction consultancy Arcadis have ranked 41 countries by their attractiveness to investors in infrastructure to produce their Global Infrastructure Investment Index.

They reckon that Singapore and Qatar are the most attractive.

The index was extracted from criteria including the ease of doing business in each market, tax rates, GDP per capita, government policy, the quality of the existing infrastructure and the availability of debt finance.

The UK has risen three places since the last report in 2012, from 13th to 10th.  Marginal improvements across all business indicators, and an improved financial and taxation environment has increased its appeal, but the UK should not be complacent, the authors say.

Recent foreign infrastructure investments into the UK have included France’s EDF Energy investing in the Hinkley Point power station, China’s Beijing Construction Engineering Group in Airport City, Manchester and Canadian pension fund La Caisse into the London Array wind farm in Kent.

Arcadis UK head of infrastructure Steve Bromhead said: “While it is positive that the UK has become more attractive to infrastructure investors over the last two years, we cannot afford to stand still. The government needs to provide long-term clarity over infrastructure policy and look at the over-prescriptive nature of regulation in several key sectors.  We risk experiencing a stasis in infrastructure investment and economic growth due to lack of investor confidence.  Unless politicians address these concerns, we reduce the size of the pool of international investors who are increasingly looking to invest in infrastructure assets in the UK, and therefore do not get best value for UK plc.”

The top 10 most attractive countries for infrastructure investment in 2014 are below, with the difference from 2012 ranking in brackets:

Country

Difference 2012

Singapore

(=)

Qatar

(=)

UAE

(+1)

Canada

(-1)

Sweden

(=)

Norway

(=)

Malaysia

(=)

USA

(+3)

Australia

(-1)

UK

(+3)

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