UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy. In brief with reactions

1 Publication
2 Aims and objectives
3 Reactions to the strategy
4 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Publication

On 19 June 2025 HM Treasury and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) published a policy paper "UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy” which sets out the government's long-term plan for economic, housing and social infrastructure to drive growth.

[edit] Aims and objectives

The report aims to present a unified, long-term blueprint to cover the economy, housing, social infrastructure, transport, energy, digitisation, water, waste, schools, hospitals and prisons. The strategy is intended to support growth, delivery of net zero and housing targets, to give certainty to investors and supply chains, reduce cost volatility and boost productivity through stable capital budgets for at least 10 years, with five-year rolling reviews of assets.

Strategic objectives include:

Resilient growth – unlock housing and business opportunities by connecting infrastructure with regional development, skills, and transport.
Cross-cutting integration – align infrastructure across sectors (net zero, industrial strategy, environment), working spatially to deliver coordinated outcomes.
Deliverability & affordability – ensure projects align with fiscal rules, industry capacity, and public financial constraints.
Institutional certainty - the newly formed National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) consolidates oversight, assurance, and project gating decisions under HM Treasury/Cabinet Office.
Stable funding: - a total of £725billion capital pledged over the next decade, with annual maintenance budgets ramping up from £9bn to £10bn by 2035 for schools, hospitals, courts, and £1bn for roads; backed by a multi-year capital framework
Transparent pipeline - launch of an online interactive infrastructure pipeline and spatial planning tool, providing visibility to developers and investors.

The focus is directed towards clean energy and net zero, aligning with the Clean Power 2030 plan; energy, grid, and flood resilience improvements to support environmental targets. In terms of housing, it looks at where infrastructure support will help remove the barriers to the delivery of 1.5 million homes in this parliament, with a targeted expansion and refreshment of social facilities such as school rebuilding, hospital infrastructure improvements and 14,000 prison places by 2031. It suggests reforms to economic infrastructure are required to enable upgrades to transport infrastructure (rail, roads), digital infrastructure, and water infrastructure. Acknowledgement is made of the cost of overruns (e.g., HS2), with suggested improvements supported through regulatory and planning reforms.

In terms of private finance, regulation, planning and delivery, the strategy embraces notions of targeted PPPs for revenue-generating projects, aiming to avoid the pitfalls of past PFI models. Emphasising regulatory clarity and de-risking investment through aligned policy frameworks and reforms in utilities, the environment, and planning. The integration of spatial planning is aligned through regional spatial strategies to coordinate housing, transport, and utilities, supported by the development of a spatial planning tool to layer environmental, industrial, housing, and infrastructure demands.

Reforms in terms of delivery will be in the form of centralised assurance and gating processes through NISTA to improve project outcomes and adopt the Construction Playbook principles, including cost control, supply chain coordination, and procurement best practices. Targetting a 10–25% cost reduction for large projects by addressing inefficiencies in planning and delivery.

The strategy marks a major shift toward long-term, integrated infrastructure planning in the UK. By centralising oversight, stabilising funding, improving transparency with a public pipeline, and embracing spatial/regulatory coordination, the government aims to curb cost inflation, attract private capital responsibly, and deliver growth-aligned infrastructure. NISTA’s establishment is the keystone, offering sustained capability and accountability.

Whilst the strategy has generally been welcomed, it has drawn some comments of caution on the project specifics and precise private sector frameworks to be used, as well as routes to overcoming them without weakening planning and regulatory systems that, while potentially hindering investment and delivery, also act as protection mechanisms and backstops.

[edit] Reactions to the strategy

[edit] Electrical Contractors Association ECA

ECA published on it news section that welcomed the publication of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

"The long awaited strategic plan for the next decade, which promises to bring down industrial electricity costs, ensure projects receive timely connections to the Grid, and support Small and Medium businesses (SMEs) by tackling late payments from large firms to SMEs."

Rob Driscoll, ECA’s Director of Legal and Business commented:

“Tackling the culture and practice of late payments within the industry has been a cornerstone of ECA’s advocacy for a number of years. We welcome the Government’s commitment to unlock growth and go further, faster, solving this pernicious issue and look forward to working in partnership with them to end poor payment practices.”

ECA’s Blueprint for Electrification – a roadmap for the UK- calls for improving grid connections and removing barriers to planning to speed up electrification.

“The Industrial Strategy –Clean Energy Industry Sector Plan- outlines a commitment to growing Britain’s electricity network supply chains, so clean power projects can connect to the Grid”, says Jane Dawson, ECA’s Head of External Affairs. “We see this a positive step to speeding up the energy transition, as outlined in the Blueprint for Electrification. ECA Member firms will also welcome the promise to remove planning barriers, an often-cited obstacle to new projects.

Andrew Eldred, ECA’s Deputy CEO commented:

“An electrical career provides high quality jobs and good career progression opportunities. To match the demand of accelerating electrification outlined in the Industrial Strategy, the industry, just in England, needs 12,500 new entrants each year (5,000 more than current levels of apprentice recruitment). Procurement reforms need to prioritise growing the workforce, by mandating apprentice ratios and other industry-endorsed skills targets in contracts.”

While ECA welcomes the reduction in the price of industrial electricity for selected businesses, it continues to call for a review of historical taxation on electricity which would reduce the price of clean energy for everyone.

[edit] The Chartered Institute of Building CIOB

CIOB has responded to the UK Infrastructure Strategy on it news and blog website.

David Barnes, head of policy and public affairs at Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), said: “The publication of the long-awaited UK Infrastructure Strategy includes some important changes to the Infrastructure Pipeline that CIOB has long called for. This is particularly the case with the expansion to include greater granularity, coverage, transparency and usability.

“We have long suggested that the information guiding construction and infrastructure projects in the UK has been patchy and a lack of joined up departmental thinking has led to suboptimal policy decisions and counter-productive policy around projects.

“This move presents a significant opportunity for the Government to boost its knowledge of the built environment. This would improve its policymaking and the impact of its spending, while potentially lifting the efficiency of every business operating in the sector.

“Ultimately, a long-term pipeline of infrastructure projects, including those associated with housing, provides an opportunity to map the true layout of the industry and provides a path to better policymaking that takes factors such as capacity into account.

“The creation of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will also be crucial for bringing much needed oversight of the strategy and, most importantly, delivery under one roof. There is a strong case for more consistency and coordination in shaping the nation’s infrastructure – particularly in an industry that is reliant on confidence, stability and visibility to invest.”

[edit] The Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA

On its website the RIBA posted a welcome note to the strategy saying: The long term strategy brings together improvements for both economic infrastructure, including transport, energy and digital, and housing and social infrastructure, as part of the government’s Plan for Change.

RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki said:

“If we want to build places that are not only fit for now, but also for the future, taking a strategic approach to infrastructure delivery is vital.

Neglecting to ensure that developments are well connected, with access to social and digital infrastructure, amenities, and green spaces can have adverse effects on people’s lives.

Conversely, we know that investing in well planned places can bring multiple benefits that make lasting contributions to communities, including improved health outcomes and economic growth. So today’s funding commitments, and the focus on place-based approaches, are very welcome.

Architects are vital to ensuring that these projects – from schools and healthcare facilities to train stations – are high quality, energy efficient, and well designed. We are ready to help the government deliver on its growth ambitions.”

[edit] Construction Products Association CPA

On its website the CPA notes that its economics director, Professor Noble Francis said:

"We welcome the 10-year infrastructure strategy and the government’s ambitions for the UK's critical infrastructure needs over the next decade, with its intention to attract private investment in a more sustainable and realistic way than previous PFI schemes. However, in order for this strategy to be useful for the construction supply chain and help make the case at board level for major investments in skills, capacity and more efficient methods to deliver the ambitious infrastructure work within the Strategy, industry will need to know when these projects will realistically start and how long they are expected to take. This essential information will hopefully be included in the government’s infrastructure pipeline, which is scheduled for publication next month."

[edit] Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation CIHT

Sue Percy CBE, Chief Executive, of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation, CIHT said:

"CIHT welcomes today’s publication of UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy, this is an important milestone for the highways, transport and infrastructure sector. The strategy acknowledges the vital role that transport plays in supporting and facilitating wider industrial growth.

We (CIHT) have consistently called for greater certainty for our sector and we hope that the details outlined in this strategy will go some way to providing the consistency to approach that highways and transportation has needed for many years. The commitment to deliver long-term funding for the maintenance of our highway infrastructure (and the wider built environment) is one we have called for over recent years.

CIHT is looking forward to working with stakeholders including the newly established NISTA to support the delivery of the detail outlined in this strategy."