Ipsos MORI’s research on coronavirus and public opinion is providing valuable insights for the infrastructure sector to take note of, says Ben Marshall.
“Stay at home”. Three small words with huge impacts for the nation’s infrastructure and the services run on it. The sector now has a surfeit of supply – an unwelcome stress-test of its resilience – but what of ‘demand’? What about infrastructure’s consumers, their perspectives and priorities?
Last month, National Grid warned that record low demand for electricity could lead to windfarms and power plants being turned off. TfL could, reportedly, “run out of cash”. The railways are back under government control. Aviation is imperilled and housebuilders are struggling. Our roads are quiet. We are living through unprecedented and dramatic changes to our society and psyche.
The new normal? Possibly. Half of Britons think it will be a year or longer before “life will return to normal”, six in ten that it will be at least this long before the economy starts growing again. Britain is the least likely among G8 countries to think that economy and business should still open if the virus is not fully contained. Five out of ten of us say we would feel comfortable going shopping after lockdown, three would be OK to go out to eat and drink, but only two in ten would be happy to use public transport.
While these numbers suggest that it will take time to return to anything like normality, it can be tempting to read too much into what is happening; no-one really knows what the future will look like. But in terms of public opinion and infrastructure, there are at least four signals we should watch out for.
As recently as March the government committed to record levels of investment in infrastructure as part of a “revolution”. In a few short weeks coronavirus has potentially shifted us into a new paradigm. But for how long? Just as public attitudes and behaviour will play a pivotal role in getting us through this crisis, so too will they have profound implications for infrastructure’s future.
Ben Marshall is a research director at Ipsos MORI.