New CBI report urges modern PPPs to unlock better infrastructure
The publication of the CBI’s report, Pipeline to Progress: Making UK Infrastructure Investable, is an important contribution to the growing debate around how the UK delivers the infrastructure needed to support long-term growth, public services and regional regeneration.
The report argues that the UK’s challenge is not a shortage of capital, but a shortage of investable, deliverable projects supported by stable pipelines, credible governance and balanced risk allocation.
At AIIP, we welcome the report’s recognition that modern public-private partnerships (PPPs) can play an important role in turning infrastructure ambition into delivery.
A modern approach to infrastructure partnerships
The report is clear that this is not about returning to historic PFI models. Instead, it advocates a modern, transparent and outcome-focused approach to infrastructure partnerships — one that reflects lessons from the past while addressing today’s delivery challenges.
It identifies several areas where reform is needed if PPPs are to support a new generation of social and economic infrastructure investment, including:
Stable, long-term infrastructure pipelines
More proportionate risk allocation
Stronger public sector capability and contract stewardship
Greater transparency and accountability
Increased use of modern methods of construction and digital delivery
Embedding social value and place-based outcomes from the outset
These priorities strongly align with the principles AIIP and its members have consistently championed across the sector.
The UK’s infrastructure challenge is increasingly about delivery
One of the report’s key conclusions is that institutional investment appetite remains strong, particularly for well-structured infrastructure programmes. However, fragmented pipelines, inconsistent procurement approaches and excessive early-stage uncertainty continue to slow delivery and increase costs.
The report highlights that the UK has attracted investment successfully into sectors with stable regulatory frameworks and predictable revenues, such as energy and digital infrastructure. However, it has struggled to establish scalable delivery models for schools, hospitals and civic infrastructure since the withdrawal of PFI in England in 2018.
As the report notes, many international markets — including Canada and Australia — have continued to use reformed PPP models successfully, while Scotland and Wales have continued to evolve partnership approaches through the Mutual Investment Model (MIM). More than 1,000 PPP projects have reached financial close globally since England’s PFI moratorium.
Better partnerships require better risk allocation
A particular strength of the report is its recognition that successful partnerships depend on realistic and proportionate risk allocation.
Risk should sit with the party best able to manage or mitigate it, rather than being transferred purely for accounting or procurement purposes. This reflects lessons learned from earlier PPP models and supports a more collaborative, delivery-focused approach.
The report’s recommendations around:
early contractor involvement,
staged risk pricing,
hybrid risk-sharing approaches,
lifecycle stewardship,
and transparent governance
represent practical steps toward improving delivery outcomes while protecting public value.
Infrastructure as a long-term public outcome
Another important theme running through the report is the need to view infrastructure not simply as construction, but as a long-term delivery system for public outcomes.
Its emphasis on lifecycle maintenance, asset stewardship, adaptability and measurable social value is particularly welcome. Modern schools, health facilities, transport links and civic infrastructure must evolve alongside changing operational needs, technology and community expectations over decades — not simply until practical completion.
The report’s focus on innovation, MMC, digital engineering and place-based delivery also reflects broader trends across the infrastructure sector.
Building confidence through consistency
The report also recognises that rebuilding confidence in UK infrastructure delivery requires long-term consistency.
Investors, contractors, operators and public bodies need confidence that programmes will be sustained, pipelines will remain credible and governance structures will not be subject to continual political reset.
That confidence is essential if the UK is to mobilise the long-term capital, delivery capability and supply chain investment needed to address the country’s infrastructure gap.
AIIP’s perspective
AIIP welcomes the publication of this report and the wider discussion it encourages around the future of infrastructure investment partnerships in the UK.
The report reinforces many of the principles AIIP members have long advocated, including 35 recommendations in our report on a new PPP model, including on improving transparency by breaking down payments and holding contractors to account; appointing independent clerks of work to strengthen oversight, and developing a more stable pipeline.
The debate should now move beyond whether partnership models have a role to play, and focus instead on how they can be structured, governed and delivered more effectively in today’s environment.
Read the full CBI report here:
https://www.cbi.org.uk/media/4lfaaf2l/making-uk-infrastructure-investable.pdf
Read the CBI summary article here:
https://www.cbi.org.uk/articles/pipeline-to-progress-making-uk-infrastructure-investable/