The high commissioner said the UK welcomed infrastructure investment from Australian institutional investors, and said the December release of the PFI review would chart a clear way forward for the sector.

The UK, he said, had a pipeline of 500 public and private infrastructure projects worth over 250 billion pounds.

In a bid to draw more investment from pension funds, the UK Government will launch its new Pension Infrastructure Platform (PIP) will launch as a fund in January 2013, targeting £2 billion ($3.24 billion) worth of projects with the backing of around 10 UK pension funds. Madden said 750 million pounds had so far been committed.

The drive is being led by a trio comprising the UK Treasury, the £11-billion Pension Protection Fund (PPF), protector of 12 million members paying out on schemes employers fail to meet, and the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which counts 1200 pension funds as members, with a combined $1.295 trillion in assets.