Greater regional infrastructure investment under a potential Andy Burnham government must not be funded by cutting London’s capital budgets, BusinessLDN deputy CEO Muniya Barua has warned. She argues that shifting money away from major London schemes—such as upgrades to key commuter rail corridors and strategic road junctions—would weaken national productivity rather than rebalance it. For engineers, the message is that long-term pipeline certainty for both London and regional projects is critical to maintain design capacity, contractor capability and supply-chain investment.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (Nista) is seeking a stronger mandate over major project delivery to give long-term certainty for the UK’s built environment amid political instability. Proposals centre on tighter central oversight of scheme selection, funding pipelines and delivery milestones for large transport, energy and water programmes, rather than leaving decisions vulnerable to short-term ministerial changes. For engineers, this would mean more stable multi-year budgets, clearer sequencing of major works and potentially stricter gateway controls on design, risk and cost management.

The UK government’s planned Nuclear Regulation Bill, trailed in last month’s King’s Speech, aims to streamline approvals for new nuclear projects such as Sizewell C and future small modular reactors by overhauling licensing and environmental consenting processes. Proposals include clearer statutory timelines for the Office for Nuclear Regulation and Environment Agency decisions, plus closer alignment between nuclear site licensing and Development Consent Orders under the Planning Act 2008. For civil and geotechnical teams, this could compress front-end programme risk, shifting focus to earlier ground investigation, safety case development and supply chain mobilisation.