Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1 January 2016 |
Preceding agencies |
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Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
Headquarters | 1 Horse Guards Road, London, United Kingdom |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Cabinet Office and HM Treasury |
Website | IPA |
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the United Kingdom government's centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA sits at the heart of government, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. The core teams include experts in infrastructure, project delivery and project finance who work with government departments and industry.
The IPA supports the successful delivery of all types of infrastructure and major projects; ranging from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. The IPA leads the project delivery and project finance professions across government.
The IPA was formed in 2016 by the merger of Infrastructure UK (IUK) and the Major Projects Authority (MPA). [1] The IPA Chief Executive was Tony Meggs until July 2019, when he was replaced by Nick Smallwood. [2]
IUK was established in 2010 to support major infrastructure projects involving public sector capital; and the MPA was established in 2011 with a mandate to oversee and assure the largest government projects.
In December 2017 the IPA issued the Transforming Infrastructure Performance report aimed at achieving annual savings of £15 billion per year in infrastructure procurement by increasing collaboration and innovation. On 13 September 2021, a follow-up report, Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, was published alongside the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline forecasting £650bn investment in UK infrastructure over the next decade. [3]
In May 2024, ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party announced plans to merge the IPA with the National Infrastructure Commission in order to speed up the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK. The new body would be called the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. [4] [5]
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science of forming objects, systems, or organizations. It comes from the Latin word constructio and Old French construction. To 'construct' is a verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built or the nature of its structure.
A public–private partnership is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions. Typically, it involves private capital financing government projects and services up-front, and then drawing revenues from taxpayers and/or users for profit over the course of the PPP contract. Public–private partnerships have been implemented in multiple countries and are primarily used for infrastructure projects. Although they are not compulsory, PPPs have been employed for building, equipping, operating and maintaining schools, hospitals, transport systems, and water and sewerage systems.
DFMA is an acronym for design for manufacture and assembly. DFMA is the combination of two methodologies; design for manufacture, which means the design for ease of manufacture of the parts that will form a product, and design for assembly, which means the design of the product for ease of assembly deriving creative ideas at the same time. The approach has been applied by engineering businesses and in the construction industry.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is a development finance institution wholly owned by the Government of South Africa. The bank intends to "accelerate sustainable socio-economic development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by driving financial and non-financial investments in the social and economic infrastructure sectors".
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies, each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries.
The construction industry is one of the major industry sectors in the economy of the United Kingdom, contributing about 6% of UK gross value added in 2019. In 2018, it was, by GVA, the sixth biggest construction sector in the world.
Partnerships UK plc (PUK) was a centralized unit responsible for furthering public-private partnerships in the United Kingdom. It was a public limited company formed in 2000, owned jointly by HM Treasury and the private sector. It ceased activity in 2011.
Infrastructure UK (IUK) was a division of HM Treasury within the Treasury's Public Services and Growth Directorate, which advised the UK government on the long-term infrastructure needs of the UK and provided commercial expertise to support major projects and programmes between 2010 and 2016.
The Government Digital Service is a unit of the Government of the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, tasked with transforming the provision of online public services.
Anthony Jan Michael Meggs is a British petroleum industry executive and former civil servant, currently serving as the Chairman of Crossrail, and formerly as Chief Executive of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, jointly part of the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.
The National Infrastructure Commission is the executive agency responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK.
Saudi Vision 2030 is a government program launched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which aims to achieve the goal of increased diversification economically, socially and culturally, in line with the vision of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman. It was first announced on 25 April 2016 by the Saudi government.
Natalie Cecilia Elphicke is a former British politician and finance lawyer. Elected for the Conservative Party at the 2019 general election, she succeeded her now ex-husband Charlie Elphicke as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover after he was charged with sexual assault. She defected to the Labour Party on 8 May 2024, shortly before standing down at the 2024 general election.
Transforming Infrastructure Performance is a British government report on the UK construction industry issued by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority in December 2017. Its aim was to improve productivity in the sector and make savings of £15 billion per year. It proposed to do this by increasing innovations like off-site construction and new digital technology, improving government procurement procedures, and improving integration and collaboration. It was seen as a welcome initiative by the industry, and early implementation of its aims has been incorporated into the water industry's 2019 price review.
The Infrastructure Cost Review was a 2010 report commissioned by the government of the United Kingdom and written by Infrastructure UK to find efficiency savings in the delivery of infrastructure projects. The British government aimed to make savings of up to £3 billion per year on current expenditure by 2015, primarily in the pre-construction phase. The report made a series of recommendations for changes in government procurement and planning. Cost savings were quickly realised and Infrastructure UK reported savings of £1.5 billion at the end of the first reporting year and £3 billion by 2014. The programme was projected to have saved £50 billion in expenditure by the end of the 2010s. Infrastructure UK was absorbed into the Infrastructure and Projects Authority which launched its Transforming Infrastructure Performance in 2017 which aims to make £15 billion in annual savings.
The Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) is a government department in Victoria, Australia. Commencing operation on 1 January 2019 as the Department of Transport (DOT), the DOT was formed in machinery of government changes made by Premier Daniel Andrews after the re-election of his Labor government at the 2018 Victorian state election. The re-shuffle saw the "super-ministry" Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources abolished and its functions reassigned to the DOT and Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.
The Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) brings together UK economic infrastructure clients in partnership with government and industry. Its key purpose is to lead the acceleration of the improvement and alignment in the delivery and development of UK infrastructure for the benefit of the economy, society and the environment. The ICG contributes to a people-focused, system-based view of infrastructure by: benchmarking, sharing and adopting best practice in the development and delivery of infrastructure programmes and projects, and providing a single route to and from government and industry on behalf of economic infrastructure clients.
"Levelling up" is a political policy first articulated in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto that aims to reduce the imbalances, primarily economic, between areas and social groups across the United Kingdom. It seeks to do so without acting to the detriment of prosperous areas, such as much of South East England. A white paper for the policy was published by Boris Johnson's government on 2 February 2022, and was continued by Rishi Sunak's government. The policy was overseen by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Modern methods of construction (MMC) is a term used mainly in the UK construction industry to refer to "smart construction" processes designed to improve upon traditional design and construction approaches by focusing on component and process standardisation, design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), prefabrication, preassembly, off-site manufacture and onsite innovations such as additive manufacture. While such modern approaches may be applied to infrastructure works and to commercial or industrial buildings, MMC has become particularly associated with construction of residential housing.