The Government’s new 10-year strategy has today been published, outlining the investment strategy for the next decade
After being announced in the Spending Review last week, the newly published UK infrastructure strategy promises £725bn of funding into several sectors.
These include, housing, transport, nuclear and clean energy, and hospitals.
The full list of sectors affected by funding can be found below
- Housing: supporting delivery of 1.5m new homes this Parliament, through the 10-year Affordable Homes Programme and with investment from the National Housing Bank.
- Transport: Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlement, capital funding to progress work on the Lower Thames Crossing and a new Structures Fund to repair major structures on the road network.
- Water: water companies to quadruple investment in new water infrastructure over the next five years, including developing 9 new reservoirs.
- National Wealth Fund: helping crowd in private investment and drive growth across the UK.
- Clean Energy: including investment by GB Energy, the UK’s first regional hydrogen transport network and store, strategic electricity transmission network investment and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
- Nuclear energy: investment to enable one of Europe’s first Small Modular Reactor programmes and for nuclear fusion, alongside Sizewell C.
- Schools: deliver rebuilding projects at over 500 schools within the existing School Rebuilding Programme and provide funding certainty out to 2034-35, enabling a further 250 schools to enter the programme.
- Hospitals: delivering 35 hospitals in England via the New Hospital Programme.
- Essential maintenance: providing funding certainty up to 2035 for schools, colleges, prisons, courts and hospitals maintenance programmes.
- Digital connectivity: continuing investment in high-speed internet access via Project Gigabit.
- Flood resilience: ensuring long term readiness via the 10-year flood defence investment programme.
- Justice: three new prisons in England by 2031.
- Defence: committing to 2.6% of GDP by 2027 on NATO qualifying defence spending
What the UK infrastructure strategy means for the construction industry
The strategy also lays out some new information regarding funding for some specific UK infrastructure plans:
- At least £600m investment each year on average from 2026-27 to 2034-35 in maintaining the justice estate, up from £500m investment in 2025-26.
- £6.3bn investment in prison expansion from 2025-26 to 2030-31, delivering the government’s commitment to build 14,000 more prison places.
- £7.9bn from 2026-27 to 2035-36 for a new 10-year floods investment programme, benefitting around 840,000 properties by 2035-36
- Almost £3bn per year by 2034-35 to improve the condition of the schools and college estate, rising from £2.4bn in 2025-26.
- Almost £20bn investment in the School Rebuilding Programme from 2025-26 to 2034-35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing School Rebuilding Programme and enabling a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
- £39bn for a successor to the Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36.
- Over £6bn per year from 2025-26 to 2034-35 for maintenance and repair of the NHS estate with investment targeted to reduce the level of critical infrastructure risk and eradicate RAAC entirely.
- This is alongside funding of up to £24bn from 2025-26 to 2034-35 for the New Hospital Programme to continue delivery of 35 hospitals including replacement of the 7 built with RAAC.
- £15.6bn in total by 2031-32 for the elected Mayors of some of our largest city regions via the Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlements, supporting them to invest in their local transport priorities.
It is clear from this information that the industry is set to receive funding for many sectors, including housing, prison systems, flood control, and more.
Elsewhere in the strategy are commitments to the AI strategy, skills hubs, and more.
It is likely this publication will lend some confidence to the industry, as some official government support is promised to come to help SMEs and larger firms alike.
Industry reactions to the new strategy
Lord Hutton, former cabinet minister and chair of the Association of Infrastructure Investors in Public Private Partnerships, (AIIP), said: “The commitment to develop new public private partnerships (PPPs) to build and rebuild our schools, hospitals and public infrastructure is welcome and long overdue.
“There is now an opportunity for an honest dialogue between government and investors on how to develop the best model for PPPs, which the NAO noted are more likely to deliver on time and on budget.
We need to learn the lessons from the past, to reduce complexities and ensure value for money for taxpayers. That includes a process for dealing with the £5bn of assets that are due to be handed back this Parliament, ensuring that contracts are either extended, or the handback is smooth to protect services for the public.”
Richard Risdon, executive board director and regional managing director for UK and Europe at Mott MacDonald, said: “The government has demonstrated that it understands improving the UK’s infrastructure is vital to increasing productivity and driving positive economic, social and environmental outcomes. Its belief that funding the management of existing assets is just as important as the investment in new ones, is most welcome.
“The confirmed plans for significant investment across a wide range of sectors will help deliver a place-based approach.
“It is critical now that the government ensures the plan is built to last and transcends politics, so future governments see through the whole 10 years. It’s not just the strategy that matters though. We need government to adopt a holistic approach to encouraging people to join our sector and to develop the skills needed to design and deliver all this new infrastructure.
“I have always been clear that the private sector will need to play an increasingly involved role in major projects. However, the industry must demonstrate confidence in its ability to deliver on the plan in order to attract the investment needed for the strategy to be successful too.
“Responsibility for the success lies with us as an industry as the strategy will ultimately be judged on whether it delivers the expected outcomes, alongside tangible progress in how we deliver.
“We look forward to the publication of the announced infrastructure pipeline and the increase transparency that this will give to the public about what will be built, when and where.”
The UK infrastructure strategy can be read in full here.
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