1 year of NISTA: has the infrastructure body transformed planning and delivery?

It’s been a year since the UK government launched a new body to oversee its ambitious infrastructure plans.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) – which sits within HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office – was created to “bridge the gap between what we build and how we build it”.

That meant combining and enhancing the functions of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) into a single body.

In June, NISTA was tasked with overseeing delivery of the government’s 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy (10YIS).

The ICE set out its view on what NISTA’s priorities should be for the 10YIS to succeed.

Twelve months on, we examine what’s changed against our six key recommendations:

1. Providing independent advice and challenge to government

The context in which infrastructure decisions are made is complex and constantly changing.

One value of the NIC was its independence, which meant that it could offer impartial advice to decision-makers. When that advice was followed, the UK made progress on its long-term goals.

NISTA doesn’t have the same level of independence. But it has set up a Council of Expert Advisers to provide scrutiny and impartial advice to ministers and NISTA’s CEO.

It also says it has a strong mandate to influence how government departments plan and deliver infrastructure – and that being directly accountable to ministers will help achieve better outcomes.

But it remains to be seen if it has the clout needed to compel the required culture change.

One way to do this would be by clarifying and streamlining assurance responsibilities across the Cabinet Office, NISTA and HM Treasury.

This would strengthen how major infrastructure projects are assessed and approved.

2. Enabling long-term strategic infrastructure planning

Major infrastructure projects can take decades to plan and deliver. Too many are affected by stop-start delivery because they lack long-term commitment.

Short-term thinking leads to higher costs and projects that don’t address the public’s long-term needs.

The 10YIS has been welcomed for being ‘long-term in its thinking, technical over ideological in its proposed solutions, and comprehensive rather than focused on just a handful of political priorities’.

But a key test for its effectiveness will be the 2027 refresh, which NISTA will oversee.

This should allow for some scrutiny of progress and the ability to course correct without resorting to short-term, kneejerk changes.

Building cross-party support remains critical to its success. NISTA must help develop that consensus for key long-term strategic programmes to survive shorter political cycles.

3. Overseeing a credible project pipeline

Infrastructure pipelines should enable resource planning, innovation, investment and efficient delivery.

Until recently, the UK lacked an up-to-date national pipeline with the required level of detail.

But last year NISTA published a new £530bn infrastructure pipeline spanning economic and social projects.

The pipeline is presented via a dynamic online dashboard and a downloadable dataset.

A recent update increased the committed spend to £718bn and includes more workforce, skills and regional data – making it easier for the supply chain to plan for future demand.

It’s to NISTA’s credit that it is listening to what the industry needs.

We can look forward to further improvements in six-month intervals aimed at keeping the pipeline up-to-date, credible and useful.

4. Embedding best practice and raising capability across government

The ICE has long advocated for government departments and arm’s length bodies to comply with the Construction Playbook and Constructing the Gold Standard (CGS) – but neither has been made mandatory under NISTA.

The playbook provides practical guidance to deliver projects sustainably at pace and scale.

CGS implements the playbook policies at a strategic level with the support of proven examples.

The 24 CGS recommendations were endorsed by government and industry bodies in the 2022 playbook update.

Making playbook and CGS compliance a clear requirement for any NISTA project business case wouldn’t require legislation.

And doing so would help address many of the issues raised in the Competition and Markets Authority’s civil engineering study, which flagged that the sector is currently under-equipped to meet coming demand.

Recruitment and training of civil servants able to deliver the 10YIS also remains a priority.

One option would be for NISTA to set up a unit of senior infrastructure leaders within government that can support public bodies on project delivery.

5. Informing and engaging the public

In polling by Opinium Research for the ICE, almost two-thirds of people (62%) said major infrastructure projects are poorly communicated to them.

That’s a problem because infrastructure exists to serve the needs of the public.

Public support is crucial for Britain’s long-term infrastructure ambitions to succeed.

There still needs to be clearer and more persuasive communication about infrastructure in the UK.

And decision-making must be informed by the needs and wishes of people who use the infrastructure.

NISTA shouldn’t be championing individual projects.

But it should articulate the importance of infrastructure investment, help explain the benefits and trade-offs, and celebrate demonstrable successes.

To support this, the ICE will be launching two policy programmes this year on understanding people’s experience of infrastructure and how to meaningfully engage the public in infrastructure decision-making.

6. Engaging globally

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the UK does a lot well.

It’s established a strong global reputation for strategic infrastructure planning, finance and delivery.

The former-IPA International Unit was at the forefront of that work alongside other partners.

There is a growing appetite among governments for sharing best practice globally as highlighted by the ICE-convened Enabling Better Infrastructure programme.

Those international efforts also help the UK’s international climate and trade goals.

NISTA’s focus in its first year has understandably been domestic. But it should develop an international function to ensure the UK government continues informing and learning from global best practice on strategic infrastructure planning and delivery.

Looking ahead

There’s much to commend NISTA on after its first year.

Crucially, it’s demonstrated a willingness to listen and work collaboratively to create the supply chain needs to deliver.

That bodes well for the future as many challenges and blockers remain to be addressed.

As we look ahead to the 2027 10YIS refresh, the ICE will continue the conversation with NISTA and the government about how infrastructure planning and delivery can be improved.

Read the ICE’s full briefing paper

Article originally published 1 April 2025.