Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Infrastructure and Projects Authority
Agency overview
Formed	1 January 2016
Preceding agencies	Infrastructure UK; Major Projects Authority;
Dissolved	1 April 2025
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	1 Horse Guards Road, London, United Kingdom
Employees	180 (2024)
Agency executive	Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive;
Parent agency	Cabinet Office and HM Treasury
Website	IPA

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) was, between 2016 and April 2025, the United Kingdom government's centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA reported to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. The core teams included experts in infrastructure, project delivery and project finance who worked with government departments and industry.

The IPA supported delivery of all types of infrastructure and major projects; ranging from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. The IPA led the project delivery and project finance professions across government.^[2] It was superseded by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), established in April 2025.

History

The IPA was formed in 2016 by the merger of Infrastructure UK (IUK) and the Major Projects Authority (MPA).^[3] The IPA Chief Executive was Tony Meggs until July 2019, when he was replaced by Nick Smallwood.^[4]

IUK was established in 2010 to support major infrastructure projects involving public sector capital; and the MPA was established in 2011 with a mandate to oversee and assure the largest government projects.^[5]

In December 2017 the IPA issued the Transforming Infrastructure Performance report aimed at achieving annual savings of £15 billion per year in infrastructure procurement by increasing collaboration and innovation. On 13 September 2021, a follow-up report, Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, was published alongside the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline forecasting £650bn investment in UK infrastructure over the next decade.^[6]

In May 2024, ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party announced plans to merge the IPA with the National Infrastructure Commission in order to speed up the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK. The new body would be called the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.^[7]^[8] NISTA was established in April 2025 as a joint unit of the Treasury and Cabinet Office, with Darren Jones as the responsible minister.^[9]^[10]