Reeves to scrap key infrastructure bodies as major projects suffer

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to scrap two key bodies responsible for advising the government on the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK.

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) will be restructured and merged into a single new organisation named the National Infrastructure Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).

The plans were confirmed by Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones at a Labour Party forum last week, where he also argued the NIC had not been taken “seriously” under the previous Conservative administration.

It comes after a string of major infrastructure projects have been delayed in recent years amid soaring costs and excessive red tape.

The most high-profile issues have surrounded the delivery of HS2, the budget of which has risen from around £30bn to over £60bn since its inception. The setbacks have been such that former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak controversially axed the northern leg of the route, to Manchester and the East Midlands, in October.

The £9bn Lower Thames Crossing tunnel, a project aimed at relieving pressure on the Dartford Crossing to the East of London, made headlines earlier in this year after it was revealed its planning application had stretched to more than 350,000 pages, or 66-miles long if laid out end-to-end.

Costs for construction at Hinkley Point C power station have also more than doubled from an initial budget of £20bn to £42bn.

In comments reported by The Sunday Telegraph, Jones said both the NIC and IPA were not capable of providing the stability needed to deliver the government’s 10-year infrastructure programme. He argued that having a split between both bodies had resulted in a lack of leadership and authority in the sector.

“The Infrastructure and Projects Authority has expanded a lot over the years since it was first created. If we’re honest, it’s become a bit of a compliance function, and needs to be more about speeding up delivery and focusing on delivery,” Jones said.

“We have infrastructure that’s not delivering for parts of the country, that’s holding back our growth and our potential.”

He added: “We think we can really create an authority at the centre of government that has the buy-in of Treasury, the Cabinet Office, and No 10, working with departments and other partners to really drive delivery in the way that we want to and to actually fix the problems that all of us know.”

The Treasury was contacted for comment.