I HOLD a subjective view that the UK has a fairly unhealthy relationship with critical national infrastructure projects.

Whereas other countries around the world assume that the value and need for say a high-speed rail network is a no brainer, we like to pontificate the case for and against, and take our time whilst inflation ensures the starting cost estimate becomes a distant memory.

To get around the political resistance, the cost and timeline will be estimated at a rate that assumes everything will land butter side up to get the green for go, and the inevitable delays and cost overruns become the subject of an expensive and bitter public inquiry which further hobbles the chances of the next infrastructure project getting off the ground. That said, few would dispute that decision-making and delivery processes for critical infrastructure need to be managed to the highest standards and levels of transparency by the public and private bodies involved.

It’s been in my thoughts recently after a visit to Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd, responsible as they are for delivery of infrastructure critical to a country enriched by its island communities. For me it was a chance to see a first-hand engineering view of an organisation that recently never seems to escape the bad news cycle.

Ferguson Marine’s history is as rich as any, founded by the Ferguson brothers in 1903 at the Newark yard, launching a steady stream of successful builds with particular note for their contribution of thirty ships in seven years for the Second World War effort. In more recent times they have contributed a continuous supply of commercial vessels including ferries for Scotland’s island routes, three of which were based on pioneering diesel-electric/lithium-ion battery hybrid technology, each saving more than 5,500 tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime.

The theme of early technology adoption continues on the two ships which we have all been talking about, and with their ambition these features bring build complexity. Including lightweight aluminium structures within a steel hull adds lightness, and therefore fuel efficiency, and the liquified natural gas hybrid propulsion system continues the drive for CO2 reduction in operation.

I expect that all the parties associated with the project to deliver these two ferries would hold their hands up and admit that mistakes have been made, and that better decisions could have been made.

The engineering view that I took from my visit is we are where we are, and the most important view is the one forward. Spending time with those who are leading the team building MV Glen Sannox was a highlight for me: an honest, straight to the point of where the build was, where the issues had been, and a clear drive that the ship will be finished with quality and restoration of pride. It struck me that it can’t be easy to maintain that belief when every day there is a queue to fire the next round of disparaging comments in their general direction.

The view forward is clearly articulated by the leadership team at Ferguson: For Hull 801 – MV Glen Sannox – “unfortunately we’ll not be able to be proud of the process that delivers this ship, but we will make sure we are proud of the ship we deliver”. The second ship – Hull 802 – is seen as an opportunity to show that they can provide both a build process – and a finished ship – to be proud of.

In the same month as my visit, a relevant piece of policy on this topic was refreshed and released in the UK’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, setting out the ambition for a globally successful, innovative and sustainable shipbuilding enterprise for the UK. Its thirty-year shipbuilding pipeline includes projections for the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland governments, running to by my estimates over 150 vessels in total and perhaps more pointedly, almost forty of those are ferries and marine protection/research vessels for the Scottish Government.

The economics of shipbuilding are pretty much the same for any complex, safety critical, integrated system of engineering. The fewer you build the higher the cost, and the more risk the overall programme will have, and two vessels is firmly in the category of very few when it comes to shipbuilding. The forward view over the timeline taken by the shipbuilding strategy is an opportunity to change that to the advantage of the public purse – and that argument is as relevant for ferries purchased in Turkey as those purchased elsewhere.

But the ambition surely must be that as many of these planned are built as close to home as possible and given that Ferguson Marine is the only commercial shipbuilder of scale in Scotland, I’d return to my argument that the most important view is the one looking forward.

That’s not to say that honesty and transparency in the lessons that need to be learned – on any side that needs to learn them – aren’t essential to the forward view, but maybe the over-riding priority now is to allow the management team the space to do their job and complete these critical ferries, whilst supporting them in finding the path to a long-term future for commercial shipbuilding on the lower Clyde.

Paul Sheerin is chief executive of Scottish Engineering