In this week's episode we’re taking a close look at the New Hospital Programme, a programme which has been described as perhaps the most ambitious National Health Service infrastructure investment in decades.

The NHP programme is tasked with delivering a new generation of state-of-the-art hospitals across England. At its core is Hospital 2.0, a standardised, repeatable and industrialised approach to hospital design and delivery that promises greater certainty, faster construction, improved quality, predictable costs, and cutting-edge clinical environments. 

To explain the programme and how it will be delivered, I am joined by Doug Baldock, Technical Services Director, and Emily King, Director of Industrialisation at the NHP, two leaders central to shaping the technical, commercial and industrial strategy underpinning Hospital 2.0. 

And with a long-term pipeline backed by rolling five-year funding envelopes averaging around £3 billion a year from 2030, the programme aligns with the Government’s wider Industrial Strategy and aims not only to modernise the NHS estate but to boost innovation, strengthen supply chains and support economic growth across the UK.

The scale of this challenge is immense: dozens of complex hospital schemes, varied site conditions, urgent RAAC rebuilds – and, of course, the need to rebuild public and industry confidence after years of delay and uncertainty. 

Yet with clearer planning assumptions, a 12-year £37bn Hospital 2.0 Alliance procurement, and deep engagement with suppliers, the programme now seeks to unlock the capability and investment needed for a sustainable long-term programme.

Well let’s find out what it means in reality..

Resources 

• New Hospital Programme: Plan for Implementation
• Government hospital investment press release 
• Supplier Guide.
• Egan review 1998
• Latham review 1994

In this week's episode  we are once again discussing data, digital tools and the use of artificial intelligence and the way that it’s set to transform infrastructure performance.

My guest today is Nathan Marsh, Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East, Africa at software giant Bentley Systems, someone who has, to be honest, been immersed in tech challenges in one shape or another for his entire career in infrastructure. 

So Nathan is well placed to shed light on the way – and the pace - technology is shaping the sector.

We are chatting today at the Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure 2025 conference in Amsterdam where Nathan has been discussing, amongst other things, the transformative role technology in shaping the future of national infrastructure.

There is no question that over the last two decades the use and power of digital systems has evolved from basic 2D drawing tools, through the evolution of Building Information Modelling to give us the kind of software tools that are at last truly changing the way that engineers approach the design, construction and management of infrastructure assets.

And as we have heard recently on previous episodes of the Infrastructure Podcast, in the short time since generative AI tools such ChatGPT have emerged and become mainstream, there is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s minds that AI is now taking every aspect of that technology revolution up a notch.

Notwithstanding the clear – and potentially well founded – fears around the unintended consequences of accelerating the use of AI technology, few can rule out the potential for change that is around the corner. 

Certainly, the use of technology to provide better tools, smarter workflows and more connected data is key to changing and improving the outcomes generated in return for the vast investment planned for infrastructure – but how?

So let’s get a bit more practical insight into what this technology might hold for infrastructure design, construction and management sector.

Resources 

• Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure 2025
• UK government 10 year Infrastructure Strategy
• Nathan Marsh Linked In
• Bentley Systems website
• 1st Battalion Welsh Guards 
• Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club
• London Welsh Rugby Football Club 

In this week's episode we’re diving into the world of digital ground movement monitoring – a rapidly evolving field that’s quietly transforming how we manage, maintain, and future-proof our critical infrastructure.

Emerging into this market is Osprey Measurement Systems, a high-tech business spun out of University College London that’s using cutting-edge digital tools to bring greater precision, speed, and insight into ground movement – something that affects everything from railways and tunnels to utilities and city infrastructure.

To help us understand the technology, the market, and the broader implications, I’m joined by Daniel Scott, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Osprey. 

Daniel’s background is nothing if not broad – he’s a former lecturer at UCL in civil and geomatic engineering and has worked on major UK infrastructure projects including Crossrail and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

He's also a serving member of the 507 Specialist Team Royal Engineers focusing on railway infrastructure – more about that later, I’m sure!

In this conversation, we explore the journey of OMS as a spin-out company, the power of reality capture and digital measurement to transform infrastructure delivery and monitoring, and what it takes to bring genuinely disruptive technology to a traditionally risk-averse sector – and how technology like this can shift the performance, efficiency, and safety of infrastructure assets.

Resources

• Osprey Measurement Systems
• Daniel Scott Linked In
• University College London ground engineering
• Crossrail lessons learned 
• Channel Tunnel High Speed Rail 
• 507 Specialist Team Royal Engineers

This episode was recorded live at the recent Transforming Infrastructure Performance summit held in Toronto, Canada in October and hosted by Bentley Systems. 

I’m joined by Divya Shah, Managing Director of the Trade & Transportation sector at the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), an organisation at the forefront of this mission to deliver the infrastructure Canada needs to stay competitive and resilient.

Infrastructure has always been central to Canada’s story — a vast country knitted together by railways, ports, roads, and power grids that enabled economic growth and connected communities. Today, the stakes are even higher. As Canada accelerates its transition to a low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive economy, infrastructure has never been more critical — or more political.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank was created to act as a catalyst: unlocking private capital, supporting transformative projects, and enabling the kind of nation-building investment needed to meet 21st-century challenges. With more than $16.8 billion invested in 102 projects across the country, from clean power and green infrastructure to transit, broadband, and trade corridors, the CIB is reshaping the way Canada builds.

But challenges remain. Canada faces shifting geopolitics, urgent climate targets, rising costs, and the need for stronger coordination between federal, provincial, and Indigenous partners. The question is not just how we build, but how we build faster, smarter, and more inclusively.

Resources

• Canada Infrastructure Bank
• Divya Shah
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance 
• TIPLive Toronto
• Bentley Systems website
• For the video version of this podcast visit the Infrastructure Podcast YouTube

In this week's episode  we take a look at airport development and specifically how, contrary to popular believe, it can actually positively benefit local communities.

To do this we are going to focus on Luton Rising, the community-owned owner of London Luton Airport and the driving force behind one of the UK’s most ambitious aviation expansion projects — a £2.4 billion investment that will increase capacity from 19 to 32 million passengers per year through the development of a second terminal. 

And at the heart of the plan is Nick Platts, Managing Director of Luton Rising. For the last two and a half years he has been immersed in this vast and ambitious project and used his experience from working in aviation and logistic around the world and last April successfully achieved a Design Consent Order – DCO for this important piece of Nationally Significant Infrastructure.

But this is far more than a transport or infrastructure story. As the UK’s only 100% community-owned airport, Luton Rising channels its profits directly back into local services and community projects — over half a billion pounds since 1997.

As such, the project represents not only a major boost for the regional economy — contributing an estimated £1.5 billion annually to GDP and creating thousands of jobs — but also a pioneering example of how growth, sustainability, and social value can align under public ownership.

So lots to talk about as we explore what makes the Luton Rising model so distinctive, and how it navigated the complex Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process, to get to the starting blocks ready to turn ambition into reality.

Resources

• Luton Rising expansion plans
• Luton Rising website
• London Luton Airport
• Luton Rising DCO for expansion
• Luton Borough Council 
• UK Government policy on airport expansion

This week's special episode is a live recording in front of an audience in the newly revamped main gallery at the Building Centre in London. 

My guest is Baroness Hilary Armstrong of Hill Top, Chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods and life-long advocate for communities and regeneration and the conversation explores one of the most important – yet often overlooked – questions in public policy: “how do we reestablish the concept of decent neighbourhoods as a means to renew the country from the ground up?”

Some background: Baroness Armstrong has spent her career at the intersection of politics, policy and community life and today – from her work as a social worker in Sunderland ..to her time as a Cabinet Minister in the last Labour Government shaping the New Deal for Communities. A great platform to talk about what’s gone wrong in the past decade, what can be done now to bring new hope across Britain’s neighbourhoods.

The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods - ICON - is a cross-party initiative dedicated to understanding how neighbourhoods can drive national renewal and in the Spring is set to publish Think Neighbourhoods, its new report in why and how investment and focus on neighbourhoods can revitalise lives across the UK.

And it certainly is a really interesting moment for housing. The government is pressing forward with its target to building 1.5 million new homes and – as we heard on the podcast last week - has just given the thumbs up to the New Towns Taskforce’s plans for 12 communities across the UK. Meanwhile, the post Grenfell fire challenge to build and retrofit homes to be safer, warmer and more carbon efficient, continues to grow.

A tough brief for sure and ICON’s interim report - published last March - makes a compelling case for investment in and focus on neighbourhoods as part of this journey. 

It identifies over 600 ‘mission-critical neighbourhoods’ across the country – places where disadvantage, disconnection and declining social infrastructure are holding people back and calls for a radical shift in how government works, arguing that “thinking big means thinking neighbourhoods.”

“if Britain wants to deliver the government’s missions and rebuild trust in politics,” it says, “it must start by investing in its neighbourhoods.”

Resources

• The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods - ICON
• Baroness Hilary Armstrong of Hill Top
• Interim Report – Think Neighbourhoods
• ICON’s summer progress report
• ICON's lates research on what is happening in England’s neighbourhoods
• The Building Centre, Store Street, London

In this week's episode we focus on New Towns and specifically the government’s on-going ambitions to tackle the UK’s housing crisis through the creation of a new generation of communities across England. 

Now Britain’s housing crisis is not new — but the scale of the Government’s ambition to tackle it is. With a target to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament, the focus is turning to how this can be achieved in a way that creates thriving, sustainable communities rather than disconnected housing estates.

In September the government accepted the findings of the New Towns Taskforce and committed to working on ideas for up to 12 New Towns through the work of the New Towns Unit – with a consultation planned for the Spring. So some progress but lots to do.

And to discuss the challenge, I am joined today by Lord Ben Gascoigne, chair of the House of Lords Built Environment Committee who will talk us through the findings of the committee’s s latest report, New Towns: Laying the Foundations

This argues that the UK cannot achieve its new town and housing ambitions without decisive national leadership and long-term commitment from central government. It calls for a dedicated cabinet-level minister and a new national delivery agency to oversee a programme of development corporations that are capable of building this new generation of well-planned, infrastructure-led towns.

At the heart of the report lies a message that echoes across decades of British planning history — that success demands vision, coordination, and patience. 

But in today’s fiscal climate and fragmented planning landscape, those qualities are harder than ever to muster.

Resources

• New Towns: Laying the Foundations
• House of Lords Built Environment Committee
• Lord Ben Gascoigne
• New Towns Taskforce report Sept 25
• Government response Sept 25

In this week's episode we’re taking a closer look at infrastructure’s use of data – how emerging digital technologies and AI tools are shaping and transforming the way we manage our built and natural environment.

To help me I am joined by James Lee, the new Chief Operating Officer at global infrastructure giant Bentley Systems in a quiet corner of the annual Year in Infrastructure tech gathering and celebration in Amsterdam.  

It is clearly a moment when global infrastructure delivery faces unprecedented pressures — from net zero targets and climate resilience; to skills shortages and digital transformation.

And as we have been hearing at the event, Bentley stands at the intersection of engineering and innovation with a mission “to close the gap between what the world demands and what we are able to deliver – as chief executive Nicolas Cumins puts it.

So a lot to chat through with James today. He joins Bentley after a two-decade career spanning Google Cloud and SAP and so, I think, brings a unique perspective on operational challenges, AI integration, and the power of partnerships to drive transformation at scale.

Let’s explore how James plans to align these innovations with the realities of infrastructure delivery.

Resources

• Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure
• Bentley Systems website
• Infrastructure Policy Advancement - TIPLive summits
• Google Cloud

In today’s episode we turn our attention to architecture and its role in shaping not just our buildings and infrastructure, but the society, environment and communities that are created by our built environment.

To tackle this challenging brief, I am joined this week in a quiet corner of the Building Centre in London by Chris Williamson, internationally renowned architect, founder of Weston Williamson + Partners – the practice that he set up in 1985 - and the freshly installed new President of the Royal Institute of British Architects – RIBA.

Chris is a man with a bold vision to reshape the profession and reshape RIBA, an organisation which has been a cornerstone for architecture for nearly two centuries. 

But today, the institution faces serious questions about its relevance, its purpose, and how it can adapt to meet the needs of a fast-changing world. 

And as issues like climate resilience, community engagement, and professional diversity take centre stage, there is growing pressure for RIBA to evolve — to become more accessible, more influential, and more impactful.

But to honest, it’s a challenge that Chris has been immersed in for his whole career, having worked on a huge portfolio of infrastructure projects, including notably the Jubilee Line extension station at London Bridge, Elizabeth Line stations at Paddington and Woolwich, the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project plus many urban regeneration projects, such as the Arden Cross masterplan in the West Midlands.

All of this work has emphasised Chris’s focus on the design of spaces that are not only functional but are sustainable and, crucially, enjoyable for people.

In his presidential nomination bid, Chris promised big change – in his first 100 days he vowed to review the 2021 RIBA Masterplan to create a more purposeful institution that leads on sustainability, champions diverse routes into the profession, delivers lifelong learning, and rebuilds public trust in architecture as a force for societal progress.

So what does that future look like? What will it take to deliver meaningful reform? And how can architects once again be seen — not just as designers of buildings — but as stewards of a better, fairer, more sustainable world?

Resources

• Weston Williamson + Partners website
• Royal Institute of British Architects – RIBA website
• Chris Williams elected RIBA President
• Chris Williamson's presidential bid
• The Stirling Prize
• Chris on “Your Architect” by Derek Senior
• RIBA amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

In today's episode we take a close look at the investor’s perspective on the UK’s infrastructure market — and, in particular, what the landmark Final Investment Decision on the new Sizewell C nuclear power station tells us about the appetite, the risks, and the rewards for long-term private capital.

Because, following completion of the deal last month, for the first time, the British public will be co-owners of a nuclear power station, sitting alongside a powerful mix of investors including EDF, Centrica, La Caisse, and Amber Infrastructure. 

And as such I am pleased to be joined today by Jamie Hossain, Senior Investment Director at Amber Infrastructure and lead portfolio manager at International Public Partnerships (INPP), who has been leading their latest 7.6% investment in Sizewell C. 

Amber is the the specialist international investment manager and investment adviser to infrastructure investment company International Public Partnerships Limited (INPP).  As such he gives us his first hand perspective on the deal, what it means for UK infrastructure – and perhaps what is in his future pipeline. 

Sizewell C is one of the most significant new energy projects in a generation — a £38 billion nuclear power station in Suffolk that will be a twin of the Hinkley Point C station now under construction in Somerset and provide reliable, low-carbon electricity for six million homes. It’s also a project that signals a new era for infrastructure investment in the UK. 

Final Investment Decision is significant. Some 70 per cent of construction spend is expected to flow to British businesses, with tens of thousands of jobs created, and £2 billion a year in savings to the electricity system. 

So it’s a project that demonstrates how public and private capital can work hand-in-hand to deliver national benefit.

But what does this mean from the investor’s perspective? How are infrastructure investor's like Amber assessing opportunity and risk and what models offer the right balance of stability, flexibility, and return for future projects?

Resources

• Amber Infrastructure Group
• INPP’s Sizewell C investor presentation
• INPP’s most recent investor factsheet 
• INPP's annual report
• All about the RAB model
• Some INPP case studies 
• An overview of INPP’s portfolio
• The Australian Cobberdog