June is a big month when it comes to the future of infrastructure.

The 10-year Infrastructure Strategy and accompanying pipeline are expected to be published around the conclusion of the Spending Review.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) has been created, recently announcing new CEO Becky Wood will take up her post this month.

Add to that the arrival of the Procurement Act earlier this year and the progression though Parliament of the Infrastructure and Planning Bill - 2025 is a year of change and one where government wants to drive development at increasing pace.

But Conor McCarthy, technical director at WSP, says it’s vital for industry to come together and work with government, feedback on what is working well – and crucially what isn’t.

“The Spending Review, Infrastructure Strategy and pipeline will give industry more certainty on where we’re headed,” he said.

“We are seeing big areas of infrastructure that are needed – but the issue is also about how we’re going to fund them.

“We are at the front end, we understand how these things work in terms of designing them and delivering them, so we must try to bring industry together, streamline that insight and inform, help and advise government.”

McCarthy, who is delivery, procurement and contract advisory lead and technical director infrastructure advisory at WSP, has also recently stepped up to chair the Procurement and Pipeline Group at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).

He has ambitions to grow the group’s membership at a time when government needs to increase communication with industry.

“We get a sense government is speaking to people, but they're probably speaking to finance experts about how to bring in the money rather than the engineering and infrastructure delivery experts about how to actually go about delivering the plans and how it will all come together.

“Over the next 12 to 18 months it’s important to bring more of industry together. That would be really powerful, to be able to advocate on behalf of our industry and demonstrate to government where things are going well, and where it's not going well.”

The UK's Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February this year. It aims to simplify and improve public procurement, making it more efficient and transparent, while also promoting wider public benefits like social value and innovation.

It comes after the development in recent years of industry ‘playbooks’ to benchmark good practice.

“We are seeing good practice coming from central government,” added McCarthy, “and local government are starting to adopt it more and more.

“That’s important as we are seeing increased devolution and the desire for local government to step in and deliver major projects.

“The Procurement Act has brought significant change. We’re now at the point of adopting it and grappling with how to apply it to individual projects and pipelines – and getting projects planned and delivered in line with that guidance.

“And that is the challenge, but at the same time that's the opportunity.”

He added: “There’s a massive amount of change going on and one of the priorities is to collate and feedback experience of the new procurement regulations as a sector.

“Do we think it's working? Are we having any specific pain points that we think should be considered or reviewed.

“But it’s also important to look at what’s going well, where are the good news stories. We must feed that back to government to make sure we get regulation right for our sector.”

The next meeting of the Procurement and Pipeline Group at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) take place on 18 June, and McCarthy is encouraging as many members as possible to attend.

“When you look at the planning reforms and how that could speed up delivery, it’s clear this is a government which is keen to deliver and make a mark.

“Procurement is at the heart of that along with clarity of the pipeline. If as an industry we can align ourselves with that pipeline, we can prepare and ensure we have the right capabilities and capacity to support the pipeline.

“It's a time of change – and industry must be part of the process.”

The next ACE Procurement and Pipeline Group meeting takes place on 18 June. Click here for details.