Infrastructure Funding Lags as Governments Tighten Belts

States, regions and cities across the US continue to seek innovative approaches and solutions to large-scale capital projects, the result of constrained public budgets and a growing recognition at the local level of the importance of infrastructure. As stated in Infrastructure 2012: Spotlight on Leadership by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young LLP, “Global economic competitiveness demands new kinds of regional entrepreneurship.”

The US continues to lag behind its global competitors in infrastructure funding, but there has also been a marked spending decline in Europe, which has been reeling from the debt crisis and is adopting austerity measures as a result of the crisis. In the United Kingdom, private finance approaches are under fire at the same time that fiscal austerity is forcing the country to rethink infrastructure priorities. Throughout Europe, depleted treasuries make new infrastructure projects look like an unaffordable luxury.