Procurement in a Nutshell – 10 year Infrastructure Strategy
25th July, 2025
The Government has recently published its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy which outlines how a £725 billion investment over the next decade will be utilised to address the critical maintenance needs of health, education and justice estates.
The Strategy promises:
- £6 billion per year to create safer hospital environments, by eliminating RAAC concrete and addressing critical infrastructure risks to ensure patients receive care in modern facilities that support rather than hinder their treatment and recovery;
- £3 billion per year in school and college maintenance to enhance learning environments; and
- At least £600 million investment each year to improve safety and security in prisons and create environments more conducive to rehabilitation.
The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will oversee the Strategy to ensure the investment is effectively implemented.
Infrastructure Pipeline
Under the Procurement Act 2023, it is mandatory to publish a Pipeline Notice for any contracting authority that considers it will pay more than £100 million under relevant contracts in the coming financial year. A Pipeline Notice is a publication outlining each individual procurement that will make up a contracting authority’s procurement pipeline over the next reporting period, providing the market with information on upcoming contract opportunities.
The Infrastructure Pipeline Digital Portal, launching in July 2025, will describe the projects and programmes delivering the Strategy over the next decade, containing data on project timelines, size, funding status, location and procurement routes. The Portal publishes major capital programmes further in advance than the Pipeline Notice, aiming to provide businesses with the certainty to invest in skills, technology and market capacity in the long-term.
While the Portal will guarantee early market engagement, contributing to the digital pipeline is another administrative consideration for contracting authorities in addition to the transparency requirements already introduced under the Procurement Act.
Procurement reforms
To supplement the Infrastructure Pipeline, the Strategy confirms that NISTA will support departments to apply a consistent approach to procurement practices to enable earlier industry involvement in the design and delivery to deliver social and economic value.
Contracting authorities can therefore expect greater scrutiny when conducting procurements, and must be prepared to justify project decisions against the Government’s priorities of cost-effectiveness but also delivering social value.
The Government has recently published Public Procurement: Growing British industry, jobs and skills: consultation on further reforms to public procurement a consultation on further reforms to the Procurement Act to enable contracting authorities to more clearly incorporate social value into a procurement. Please see our Nutshell linked [here] for a more detailed discussion on the proposed reforms.
What this means for contracting authorities
Contracting authorities should seize the new opportunities presented by the long-term funding and planning visibility promised by the Strategy. However, it is essential that authorities build the knowledge and capacity to deliver compliant and socially valuable procurements, particular under the increasing scrutiny of NISTA.
For further information please contact Tim Care or Melanie Pears in our Public Sector Team.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
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