The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has called for wide-ranging reforms to planning, procurement and project management after identifying eight factors that it says are driving up the cost of Britain’s infrastructure.
The think tank’s report argues that the issue is not simply the amount invested, but the infrastructure delivered in return. It includes 40 recommendations covering transport and other major projects.
High costs across major projects
The report uses HS2 as a central example, citing the latest estimated cost of £102.7bn for 140 miles of railway. By comparison, it says Spain’s approximately 2,500-mile high-speed rail network was built for about £75bn in 2025 prices, equivalent to roughly £28m per mile.
It also says the Jubilee and Northern line extensions cost twice the per-mile average of comparable projects in France or Italy, and six times the Spanish average. The proposed 4.7-mile Bakerloo line extension, with a budget of £10.9bn, would have the highest per-mile cost of any subway line outside New York City, according to the CPS.
The report says British tram projects cost more than twice the European average. It also puts the estimated cost of a third runway at Heathrow at £21bn, which it says is between 10 and 70 times the cost of runway additions elsewhere.
Eight drivers identified
Among the factors identified are a slower and more expensive planning process, with average decision times increasing from 2.6 years in 2012 to 4.2 years in 2021.
The CPS says environmental impact assessments have expanded from fewer than 400 pages for the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990s to nearly 18,000 pages for a 3.3-mile railway to Portishead.
It also points to rising judicial review activity. Legal challenges increased from about one a year between 2008 and 2018 to four a year between 2019 and 2024. National Highways has estimated that a single challenge can add more than £120m to project costs, the report says.
Other issues include Treasury responsibility for funding without equivalent control over costs once projects are approved; procurement focused too heavily on lowest cost and social value rather than value for money; regulations set by bodies with limited responsibility for cost outcomes; insufficient technical expertise within the civil service; and centralised decision-making that limits the role of mayors and local authorities.
The report also highlights staff turnover at the Department for Transport, saying it has the second-highest rate of any Whitehall department.
Calls for devolved decision-making
The CPS recommends making Development Consent Orders a genuine one-stop shop, changing environmental rules to focus more on outcomes than paperwork, and increasing cost caps for unsuccessful judicial review claimants.
It also proposes devolving funding and approval powers to metro mayors, reforming procurement to reward value for money and past performance, reviewing unnecessary standards, rebuilding engineering expertise inside the civil service and transferring Transport and Works Act Order approvals to elected regional mayors.
Ben Hopkinson, CPS head of housing and infrastructure and author of the report, said: “Without reform, Britain will continue to spend vast sums on infrastructure while receiving comparatively little in return, and only that after significant delay.
“Our neighbours do not experience the same problems, there are ways to deliver the infrastructure a country needs quickly and efficiently, without enormous cost to the taxpayer. The recommendations I’ve outlined would help speed up the process of delivering new infrastructure significantly, for less than we currently spend, and allow the economy to unlock the wider benefits of better public transport, greater airport capacity, and more roads.”
Richard Holden MP, shadow transport secretary, said: “Sky-high infrastructure costs have plagued Britain’s transport system for far too long, leaving taxpayers paying more while getting less and less.
“50 years ago, Britain faced a similar malaise and the CPS developed many of the ideas that turned Britain around. This report is in that same tradition and is a vital contribution to the mission Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch have today to get Britain moving and working again.”