ACE has shared a series of open letters to candidates in the upcoming devolved, mayoral and local elections on Thursday 6 May.

Our regional (Midlands, North West) and national (Scotland, Wales) groups worked with ACE’s new Head of Policy Guto Davies to draft the letters to those standing in the Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, and London mayoral elections, as well as the devolved parliament elections in Scotland and Wales. These addressed key local issues around transport, housing and social infrastructure.

In addition, recognition of the role of construction as a driver for recovery, creating offsite manufacturing zones, and encouraging a visible pipeline of local projects to allow members to invest in skills, capabilities and jobs for young people, were among a number of cross-cutting issues raised in all of the letters.

In a soon to be published blog on the elections, also published in Infrastructure Intelligence, Guto Davies, said: “While these elections are all different, they are uniquely connected around the need to deal with the immediate impact of the pandemic, the long-term implications of Brexit, and helping to achieve net zero ambitions, particularly important in the year of COP26. The Prime Minister’s desire to Build Back Better and for levelling up, will also resonate with insiders in the devolved governments looking to politically reframe their own plans for recovery.”

The open letters, which can be downloaded below, reinforce that the next decade will be crucial in addressing challenges such as Net Zero, and makes clear that ACE members are the delivery partner of choice for local politicians keen to turn rhetoric into reality.