The Infrastructure Podcast

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 Irela...

We kick off the Infrastructure Podcast for 2026 by talking about nuclear power and taking a close look at the much discussed - and much anticipated - small modular reactor programme being developed by Rolls Royce SMR. My guest today is Ruth Todd CBE, Rolls-Royce SMR’s Operations and Supply Chain Director , the person charged with turning this long-standing ambition into a deliverable reality. And...

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 helpin...

In this week's episode we’re taking a close look at the New Hospital Programme, a programme which has been described as perhaps the most ambitious National Health Service infrastructure investment in decades. The NHP programme is tasked with delivering a new generation of state-of-the-art hospitals across England. At its core is Hospital 2.0, a standardised, repeatable and industrialised appr...

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...

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 precisi...

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...

In this week's episode  we take a look at airport development and specifically how, contrary to popular believe, it can actually positively benefit local communities. To do this we are going to focus on Luton Rising, the community-owned owner of London Luton Airport and the driving force behind one of the UK’s most ambitious aviation expansion projects — a £2.4 billion investment that will in...

This week's special episode is a live recording in front of an audience in the newly revamped main gallery at the Building Centre in London.  My guest is Baroness Hilary Armstrong of Hill Top, Chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods and life-long advocate for communities and regeneration and the conversation explores one of the most important – yet often overlooked – questions i...

In this week's episode we focus on New Towns and specifically the government’s on-going ambitions to tackle the UK’s housing crisis through the creation of a new generation of communities across England.  Now Britain’s housing crisis is not new — but the scale of the Government’s ambition to tackle it is. With a target to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament, the focus is turnin...

In this week's episode we’re taking a closer look at infrastructure’s use of data – how emerging digital technologies and AI tools are shaping and transforming the way we manage our built and natural environment. To help me I am joined by James Lee, the new Chief Operating Officer at global infrastructure giant Bentley Systems in a quiet corner of the annual Year in Infrastructure tech gather...

In today’s episode we turn our attention to architecture and its role in shaping not just our buildings and infrastructure, but the society, environment and communities that are created by our built environment. To tackle this challenging brief, I am joined this week in a quiet corner of the Building Centre in London by Chris Williamson, internationally renowned architect, founder of Weston Willia...

In today's episode we take a close look at the investor’s perspective on the UK’s infrastructure market — and, in particular, what the landmark Final Investment Decision on the new Sizewell C nuclear power station tells us about the appetite, the risks, and the rewards for long-term private capital. Because, following completion of the deal last month, for the first time, the British public w...

In today's episode we tackle one of the construction sector’s most persistent and costly challenges: productivity. The UK construction industry is under huge pressure as it copes with economic pressures, a shrinking workforce and a pipeline of increasingly complex projects.  Creating major infrastructure schemes to transform our energy water and transport systems, tackling a 1.5 million house...

In today's podcast we are talking about bioenergy and specifically looking at how carbon capture and storage is set to transform the technology. The UK’s net zero energy transition is firmly underway and one of the most promising new technologies is Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage, or BECCS. By combining the generation of renewable power with the permanent removal of CO₂, BECCS has...

In today's episode we’re talking about steel — but not in the usual way.  My guest, Ben Holmes, is Head of Sustainability at Elliott Wood, the structural and civil engineers behind, amongst many other things, 30 Duke Street, the UK’s largest steel reuse project in which some 78% of steel from the original structure is being repurposed. Ben believes that the current public sector rescue of Bri...

In today's podcast we dive into the rapidly evolving world of infrastructure investment — a space that has moved from the periphery of specialist portfolios to the centre of global capital markets. Once the preserve of a relatively narrow group of pension funds and specialist investors, infrastructure has now become a truly universal asset class, attracting sovereign wealth funds, institution...

In today's episode we’re diving into cement – a material that underpins every road, every railway, every school, hospital, bridge, and home we build. Because without it, the UK’s infrastructure ambitions would, quite literally, crumble! My guest today is Dr Diana Casey, executive director for cement, energy and climate at the Mineral Products Association (MPA) . As she knows only too well, ce...

In today's bumper post summer special episode we return to the HS2 project - infrastructure’s poster child for delay and cost overrun – as we discuss the content of a brand new book examining how this project went, as the title suggests, so badly Off the Rails. Few infrastructure projects in British history have generated as much debate and scrutiny as HS2; becoming a lightning rod for wider...

In today's episode we revisit the subject of project commissioning - a vital, often underestimated stage of infrastructure delivery.  What is commissioning – well in a nutshell it’s the complex process of preparing an asset to operate exactly as intended from day one.  So to be clear, it's not testing! And to discuss this we are back with Paul Turner, chief executive of the newly renamed...

In this episode we’re focusing on the management of nuclear waste; one of the most complex, long-term, and often misunderstood aspects of the UK’s energy future. Because while nuclear power is increasingly seen as a vital part of the transition to a low-carbon energy system, - and the UK government has just committed tens of billions of public pounds to accelerating its development - the question...

In today’s episode we’re diving into one of the most pressing – and controversial – sectors in UK infrastructure: water. Following years of public outrage over pollution, poor service and rising bills, the water industry in England and Wales now faces a once-in-a-generation reckoning.  That reckoning arrived this month with the publication of the final report from the Independent Water Commission,...

In today's podcast we delve into the fast-evolving world of infrastructure investment - an area that has never been more critical to delivering the economic growth, national resilience and transition to a net zero future demanded by the UK government. As we saw in the latest 10 year Infrastructure Strategy and in the Industrial Strategy that sits behind it, public infrastructure underpins the...

In today’s episode we are focusing on the government’s latest - and long awaited - 10 year infrastructure strategy. Because after decades of underinvestment, fragmented planning, and inconsistent delivery, the government has finally published what is perhaps the most comprehensive and ambitious infrastructure strategy in a generation.  Backed by at least £725 billion of public funding over the nex...

In today' podcast we are focusing on the UK’s new nuclear power ambitions and specifically, exploring the Sizewell C project. As I said a few weeks ago on the podcast, it’s perhaps one of the most significant moments for the UK’s nuclear industry in over a generation. Last month, the government announced a multi-billion investment to drive forward this ambition with £14.2 billion committed to...