The Infrastructure Podcast

In this week's episode we are seeking a new year parliamentary progress update to discover how 18 months of government infrastructure ambition is actually being turned into real economic and social growth potential. To help me with this I am joined once again by Mike Reader, MP for Northampton South, the newly re-elected chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure and Construction. And, of course, as we heard in his first visit to the Infrastructure Podcast a year ago, before he was elected to parliament in July 2024, Mike was a director at construction giant Mace.Well it is certainly an interesting moment for the sector. The UK entered the new year with infrastructure right at the centre of its growth strategy. Ministers are clear that better transport, energy, housing and digital networks are essential if we are to unlock regional productivity, raise living standards and support the transition to Net Zero. As we have heard in so many episodes of the podcast, large projects are already under way - from new nuclear capacity and grid upgrades to major transport links and hospital programmes. And the pipeline is real and ready.But the real test now is whether long-promised ambition can be converted into delivery, economic value, and public confidence.At the same time, familiar structural challenges persist. Slow planning, skills shortages, fragmented procurement, high costs and stubbornly low productivity continue to constrain output. The housing crisis remains acute, energy infrastructure is racing against time, and the UK’s ageing assets demand smarter stewardship, not just new concrete. Meanwhile technology, data and AI offer huge potential, but meaningful adoption depends on a stable pipeline and the right capability in the workforce.So let’s get a progress update from the heart of power and explore whether government is actually now doing enough to provide long-term certainty, mobilise private investment, modernise delivery, and turn infrastructure ambition into real social and economic outcomes. ResourcesMike Reader MP websiteAll Party Parliamentary Committee on Infrastructure Energy Security and Net Zero CommitteeConstruction Leadership CouncilTransforming Infrastructure PerformanceParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development Committee 

In this week's podcast we’re talking about the tricky challenge of safely managing and disposing of the UK’s expanding stock of nuclear waste. Creating a Geological Disposal Facility.For more than 70 years, the UK has benefited from nuclear technology - generating low-carbon electricity, advancing medicine, supporting industry, and contributing to national defence. Alongside those benefits comes responsibility. Because the most hazardous radioactive wastes produced over those decades will remain radioactive for many thousands of years.And while they are currently stored safely at a number of surface facilities across the country, - as we heard on the podcast in episode 126 last year – those stores require ongoing monitoring, management, and periodic rebuilding. They are secure for the short to medium term - but they are not permanent solutions.My guests today are tackling that very issue. Malcolm Orford is Head of major permissions and Neil Hyatt, chief scientific advisor at Nuclear Waste Services who are leading the hugely ambitious and challenging project to develop a Geological Disposal Facility for long term disposal of this waste.. As we will hear, it is one of the largest environmental protection programmes in its history: a deep underground facility, between 200 and 1,000 metres below ground, designed to isolate higher-activity radioactive waste within engineered vaults and rock formations, using a multi-barrier system to keep it safely contained long after today’s institutions no longer exist.Nuclear Waste Services is leading this programme on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Its dual challenge is to find a suitable geological site and identify a willing host community in which to embed the facility. Progress is being made with community partnerships established in Cumbria, alongside extensive scientific evaluation, engineering studies, and international collaboration. But it all comes at a huge cost over vast timescales and in often uncharted technical grounds.ResourcesNuclear Waste ServicesThe Geological Disposal FacilityVideo explaining the challengeCommunity engagementGDF benefits

Matt Cannon, CEO of Clancy Group and lifelong infrastructure leader, talks skills, apprenticeships and workforce strategy. He explores attraction, retention and blended training. He discusses how pipeline uncertainty, regional tailoring and direct employment shape investment in people. He also covers training infrastructure, digital skills and turning national targets into real jobs.

In today’s podcast we explore the power of investment in infrastructure to change and improve people’s lives - every day.  My guest is David Porter, the newly installed 161st President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a man who throughout his career, has had public service top of mind, top of his agenda and etched throughout everything he does.As a career civil servant in Northern Ireland, he knows better than most how important it is to work with communities  - - and of course how civil engineering and infrastructure shapes almost every aspect of daily life-from the water we drink and the energy that powers our homes, to the transport networks and flood defences that keep the country moving and safe. And yet, despite its central role, and as David points out, the profession often struggles to explain its value, earn public trust, or influence the decisions that matter most.But we need to meet that challenge. The UK faces ageing assets, a stretched public purse, ambitious net zero targets, rapid technological change and growing public scepticism about long-term investment. At the same time, the civil engineering profession is grappling with skills shortages, questions of capability, and how best to deploy emerging tools like artificial intelligence responsibly.In his inaugural address last November, David argued that civil engineers need to change how they talk about their work - moving away from technical language and towards a clearer focus on the services infrastructure provides and the societal outcomes it enables. He has also challenged clients, institutions and engineers themselves to raise their game: to become better communicators, better decision-makers and better stewards of long-term public value.So let’s deep deeper to find out how to ensure civil engineering and infrastructure truly serves society in the decades ahead.ResourcesDavid Porter's ICE presidential address November 2025ICE websiteICE President’s Future Leaders initiativeNorthern Ireland Department for Infrastructure Transforming Infrastructure Performance summit London 25Routes to ICE membershipVolunteering with ICE

In this discussion, Ruth Todd CBE, the Operations and Supply Chain Director at Rolls-Royce SMR, explores the revolutionary potential of small modular reactors (SMRs). With a rich background leading the UK COVID Vaccine Taskforce, Ruth emphasizes the strategic value of homegrown nuclear technology for job creation and energy independence. She delves into the £2.5bn government investment that helps de-risk projects and attract private funding, while outlining lessons from previous major infrastructure programs to ensure successful SMR delivery by the mid-2030s.

In this last episode of 2025 we once again look at Canada’s infrastructure market to compare and contrast the global scale of investment ambition on that side of the Atlantic.As such, it is my pleasure to welcome Jennifer McKelvie, Member of Parliament for Ajax, Ontario, and former deputy mayor of Toronto who has without question emerged over the last few years as one of the leading voices helping to steer Canada’s infrastructure investment transformation.So first some background: Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its infrastructure journey. From housing shortages and strained transit systems to the growing impacts of climate change, the country faces pressures that span geography, sectors, and generations. Yet this moment is also one of enormous opportunity. With a renewed federal focus on nation-building, Canada is reshaping how it plans, finances, and delivers the infrastructure that underpins its future prosperity.In her recent address to the Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit hosted by Bentley Systems in Toronto, Jennifer outlined an ambitious vision for Canada to accelerate delivery of major projects, create of new federal agencies to drive housing supply, and strengthen the public-private partnership ecosystem. Key initiatives such as the launch of the Major Projects Office, establishment of Build Canada Homes, and support for Canada Infrastructure Bank’s expanding footprint, underline this as a moment defined by scale, speed, and strategic intent. And, of course, urgency - urgency to build and adapt in the face of an increasingly uncertain political relationship with the United States and to prepare communities for the climate realities already unfolding across the country.ResourcesJennifer McKelvie, Member of Parliament for Ajax, OntarioCanada Major Projects OfficeBuild Canada HomesCanada Housing Infrastructure FundBuilding Canada StrongCanada Public Transit FundDisaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund Canada Infrastructure BankTransforming Infrastructure Performance Summit Toronto 2025

In this engaging discussion, Doug Baldock, Technical Services Director, and Emily King, Director of Industrialisation, delve into the groundbreaking New Hospital Programme. They unpack how Hospital 2.0 utilizes a systematic and standardised approach to hospital design, promising faster construction and improved quality. Key topics include the £37 billion programme's ambitious scale, the importance of digital tools for efficiency, and the cultural shift required for collaboration. Both share personal motivations, highlighting this initiative as a transformative leap for the NHS.

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 2025UK government 10 year Infrastructure StrategyNathan Marsh Linked InBentley Systems website1st Battalion Welsh Guards Birmingham Moseley Rugby ClubLondon 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.ResourcesOsprey Measurement SystemsDaniel Scott Linked InUniversity College London ground engineeringCrossrail 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.ResourcesCanada Infrastructure BankDivya ShahTransforming Infrastructure Performance TIPLive TorontoBentley Systems websiteFor the video version of this podcast visit the Infrastructure Podcast YouTube