A new Transport and Infrastructure Campus is set to be built in the West Midlands to deliver billions on public infrastructure
The new government transport hub will oversee the investment of £725bn into public infrastructure over the next 10 years.
The hub will allow transport, property, and housing experts to come together from across the West Midlands.
The investment will come from the National Infrastructure Strategy
Headed by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), the Campus will have a senior civil servant appointed as the project director, based in Birmingham.
The new campus will also support the creation of 1.5m new homes by fast-tracking 150 major infrastructure projects, and working alongside frontline workers and local governments.
Secretary of state for transport, Heidi Alexander, said: “The West Midlands is a fantastic home for this new Transport and Infrastructure Campus, with a real strength in delivering major projects like the Midland Metro, the expanding SPRINT bus network, and the opening of five new rail stations later this year.
“By basing the campus here, we’re backing local expertise and bringing decision making closer to communities, helping deliver the infrastructure needed to drive growth across the country.”
Housing secretary Steve Reed said: “We’ve promised to build 1.5 million homes this Parliament, and that means doing things differently. This campus brings together the people and expertise we need to cut through the barriers and help us get Britain building.
“Local knowledge, local talent. That’s what I mean when I said build, baby, build.”
The UK has lost a lot of money on transport projects
In November last year, the National Audit Office (NAO) released figures showing the in the periods 2023-24 and 2024-25, the Department for Transport had written off more than £2.7bn from transport projects.
This was mostly made up of the costly cancellation of HS2 Phase 2, at £2.1bn, while the rest of mainly National Highways cancellations, including all-lane-running smart motorways, the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down, A1 Morpeth to Ellingham Dualling, A27 Arundel Bypass, and the A358 Taunton to Southfields, all accounting for £62m.
In another report, titled HS2: Update following the Northern leg cancellation, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Our Committee has not made recommendations in our report on delivering better outcomes for HS2’s future passengers. We are long past that point. It is time to deal with HS2 as what it is – a cautionary tale that should be studied by future governments in how not to run a major project. We are sceptical of Government’s ability to successfully deliver even a curtailed scheme, one which we already know will on its face bring very poor value for money. The question has instead become: what possible benefit can the Government now salvage for the taxpayer, from a mess that presents real risks to the UK’s overall reputation?
“This Committee has scrutinised HS2 since its inception. Our report lays out a catalogue of warnings proceeding from that scrutiny which, if heeded, may have brought about a different outcome. Both DfT and HS2 Ltd. must now begin the hard work of making this project the best possible version of itself in the circumstances, while swiftly addressing the needs of those impacted by decisions made under this scheme who are still waiting for answers. The government must now look to future, and deliver on its responsibilities to Parliament and the wider public – through the lens of its accountability to the PAC.
“It is ultimately the Department of Transport that has failed to manage this enormous project and manage HS2 properly. This is likely to have wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers money in delays and overspends. The department as well as resetting the project must now reset itself to manage this project to a workable conclusion in line with the eventually agreed budget and timescale. To do this they will need to employ people with the correct range of skill sets to critically supervise and oversee this huge project. This is the only way to salvage its severely tarnished reputation. We expect to see a real improvement when we next examine this matter.”
