Re:View 20 June 2025
Chief Executive
Quote of the week
“The government has huge ambitions for the country, but we are committed to doing fewer things better instead of the same things badly.”
Rt Hon Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
While last week’s Spending Review set out more detail on the spending envelopes for the rest of the Parliament, we are awaiting a series of plans, reviews and strategies to fill in the detail on the ‘what’. This week we got the first of those: ‘UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy’.
In practice, it’s a helpful bringing together of projects and investments already announced, but the Government is right that laying out a plan for the coming decade, with funding of “at least” £725 billion, provides a degree of certainty that has been lacking — and that’s crucial to securing private investment. Though it’s worth noting that we’re in fact waiting for another plan, or rather a “pipeline”, to set out the “full range of projects to be taken forward”.
The problem is that our history of executing major projects is woeful. As we pointed out, for example, in our Re:Act analysing the Spending Review, while investment in nuclear is essential and welcome, “Britain is already home to the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world, Hinkley Point C, and Sizewell is likely to become the second-most expensive based on these increases”. Allocating money is the easy(ish) part, spending that money well so that projects are actually delivered on time and to budget is much, much harder.
This week one of the most egregious examples of delivery failure was back in the spotlight: HS2. The transport secretary, publishing the Stewart Review into transport project governance, told the House it is “no less than a litany of failure”.
The Review identified a lack of oversight and scrutiny, a lack of trust between the department and HS2 Ltd, a lack of skills and capability, and cultural issues — as well as political interference and delayed decisions. There is also now an investigation into potential supply chain fraud.
The new chief exec has reviewed the current plans and deemed them “not deliverable”, reporting that “HS2 Ltd is not set up to actively manage delivery…Despite its large headcount, HS2 Ltd is currently ill-equipped to perform this role”. On cultural issues he states: “The organisation is too bureaucratic, process-driven, and risk-averse. It does not operate like an expert builder of a railway.” In other words, it is completely failing to do what is set up to do.
The test for Labour, therefore, is not setting out a nice list of projects, or even providing longer term funding (important as that is). The test is their ability to completely transform how those projects are delivered. We are yet to see how NISTA will actually operate differently and drive vastly better performance, but in their hands lies a large part of the Government’s number one mission: growth.
(Re:)Meet the team!
Each week, we will be reintroducing our readers to a member of our small but mighty Re:State team. This week, the spotlight is on…
Joe Martin, Senior Researcher - @Joe_Martin25, @joemartin25.bsky.social
Tell us something about yourself that we might not know?
My first ever job in the public sector involved negotiating dangerous goods policy at the United Nations. Whilst the bragging rights, and subsidised dinners, were great, I did once have to review 1,000 pages of regulation reviewing whether the words ‘hazardous’ or ‘dangerous’ were being used correctly. That was a hazardous week for my mental wellbeing.
Otherwise, I’ve spent the last year on a career break travelling through Scandinavia, central Asia and the deep south of the US.
What are you working on?
I work on the Re:Imagining Whitehall research programme, so most of my time is spent talking to leaders across the public sector and thinking about how to tackle some of the thorniest challenges facing central government. Recently, I’ve begun thinking about strategic workforce planning in government and how this can be used to hit the twin objectives of securing efficiencies whilst improving the overall performance and responsivity of central government departments.
Who is your favourite reformer?
Having been shamed for suggesting William Beveridge (too obvious), I’ll go with Alfred the Great; he saw off the existential risk of invasion, codified and embedded a legal system and raised the bar for what citizens could expect from their leaders.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
One of my two dogs.