The National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) compiled its first infrastructure pipeline in July 2025. The first update adds projections of workforce requirement, drawing on data from CITB, ECITB, NSAR, Energy and Utility Skills, and Cogent Skills.
The pipeline includes data on economic infrastructure projects with a capital cost over 拢25m (including transport, utilities and energy) and on other projects with a cost over 拢15m.
Construction is projected to account for more than two-thirds of the workforce requirements, with education and health accounting for the largest share. Overall, NISTA says the 734 projects now tracked will require investment of 拢718bn over the next decade, from a mix of public and private sources. Overall, the government has committed 拢725bn to infrastructure projects; only a subset of these projects are covered by the tracker.
Introducing the new data, chief secretary to the Treasury James Murray said, 鈥淭he focus on infrastructure is right at the heart of the economic plan of this government for building a more secure and stronger economy in our country. We want to make sure that the infrastructure which we're investing in, the public investment leverages in far greater private investment to really boost growth and productivity right across the country.鈥�
Jon Loveday, NISTA鈥檚 director for infrastructure, enterprise, and growth, emphasised the value of the new workforce data to an industry largely made up of small businesses, 鈥淪kills is a significant challenge in our industry. There is a significant need to deliver skills on a consistent basis over the next ten years.鈥�
While schools and hospitals will lead workforce demands, the energy sector will take the highest share of investment, totalling 拢365bn over ten years鈥攁 little more than half of the sector. With many of these jobs requiring specialised equipment to transport and install heavy and oversized components in hard to reach sites, this may be viewed as good news by many niche suppliers.
As well as adding data on workforce requirements, the new pipeline brings in data from a wider range of sources, including mayoral combined authorities, which have been given increased spending powers under the government鈥檚 shake up of local councils. It adds data from major transport bodies like TfL, and now allocates spending on HS2 to specific regions. It does not include data from the UK鈥檚 devolved national governments, which publish their own pipelines.
The tool itself has been refined for the new release, adding new filters on the type of investment (public, private, or mixed), revenue model and capital costs, as well as approval pathways. The new workforce data can be further categorised by occupation.
Industry broadly welcomed the new data, with Mark Reynolds, co-chair of the Construction Skills Mission Board and the Construction Leadership Council, and executive chairman of Mace Group, saying: 鈥淭he pipeline has already proved invaluable to industry, giving clarity and visibility of workload at a time when confidence in future delivery is so important. We believe the new skills data set will help further; enabling industry and government to establish a demand-led skills system that identifies where and what skills and jobs are required to deliver the pipeline.鈥�
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