A mission for skills

Eighteen months into his new job as Member of Parliament for Northampton South, Mike Reader , my guest on this week’s episode of The Infrastructure Podcast , has pretty much completed the transition from Mace work winning director to fully fledged politician. And that makes him hugely qualified to provide us with a progress report on the government’s much discussed ambition to back infrastructure investment as the key to driving economic growth and raising living standards across the UK. Have a listen here or find all 149 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. Mike’s straight-talking update from the heart of Parliament unpacks what’s actually moving and what’s stuck and discusses whether, for all the policy talk, the UK is finally turning its infrastructure ambition into real-world delivery. Enjoy!

There are some infrastructure projects that leave you literally gasping and grappling with the scale of ambition and complexity. The UK’s Geological Disposal Facility is one such project – and one we explore on The Infrastructure Podcast this week. My guests are Neil Hyatt, chief scientific advisor and Malcolm Orford, Head of Major Permissions at Nuclear Waste Services. They explain the hugely ambitious plan to build a vast underground vault system designed to protect future generations for literally tens of thousands of years into the future. Have a listen here or find all 145 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. We dive into one of the toughest long-term challenges of safely managing and disposing of the UK’s nuclear waste. Because for 70+ years, nuclear has powered our homes, advanced medicine and strengthened national security. Some of its most hazardous wastes will remain radioactive for thousands of years and so surface storage isn’t the permanent answer. A new underground facility, most likely in Cumbria, is the preferred option.

My guest on this week’s episode of the The Infrastructure Podcast is Matthew Cannon, chief executive of The Clancy Group - and a former international pro rugby player - as we tackle the tricky issues of building and retaining high performance teams in infrastructure. Have a listen here - or find all 147 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. Alongside Matt’s hugely insightful take on the current challenge facing the UK contracting market, I found it really insightful to chat to a former high performing sportsman (Matt played at London Irish and London Welsh and was a member of England’s successful 2003 Hong Kong Rugby 7s squad) about the way his sports team experiences crossed over into the world of work. While I have never personally been involved in high performance of elite sports, I have witnessed close up the absolute power of sports teams working together to, literally “make the boat go faster”. And given that we talk so much about collaboration and leadership as being key to successful infrastructure project delivery, there is surely much to learn from those experiences.

It was so great to finally sit down with David Porter, the recently installed 161st President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) , to record this week’s episode of the The Infrastructure Podcast. Have a listen here - https://lnkd.in/eFB_Pzwd or find all 146 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. Over the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of spending time with David as we both helped deliver the Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit series with ICE and Bentley Systems in various locations around the world. As you will hear in this week’s podcast, David’s absolute passion for engineering and infrastructure as a route to public service is truly inspirational. And as David makes clear, infrastructure professionals have to work much harder to convince the public of the value of investment. Because while we all depend on infrastructure - the roads railways, power water and communications of everyday life - most people barely notice it until it fails. So how do we make infrastructure personal again? Check out this episode as we discuss trust, long-term investment, public value, skills, AI, and why engineers must rethink how they communicate the impact of their work on everyday lives. I hope you enjoy listening to David as much as I did!

New year; new energy. We kick off The Infrastructure Podcast for 2026 by tackling one of the UK’s biggest and potentially most exciting infrastructure challenges: the future for Small Modular Reactors. My guest is Ruth Todd CBE, Operations and Supply Chain Director at Rolls-Royce SMR - the person tasked with turning a long-held nuclear ambition into a lower cost, deliverable reality. With experience spanning the Covid 19 Vaccine Task Force and HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd, she knows what it takes to lead at moments of national importance. Have a listen here - https://lnkd.in/ef_AXvZR or find all 145 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. The latest Fingleton Review of UK’s nuclear sector described it as facing “strategic failure”. The government has responded with one of the most ambitious energy interventions in decades - including £2.5bn to accelerate SMRs. At the centre of it all sits Rolls-Royce SMR: factory-built, standardised, and designed to overcome the cost and delivery pitfalls that have plagued nuclear for years. Plans are underway to deploy at Wylfa with each SMR capable of powering a million homes. And the ambition is to export the technology around the world. So is this the start of a new golden age for UK nuclear?

It’s the last episode of The Infrastructure Podcast for 2025 this week and to close out the year I’m joined by Canadian Member of Parliament Jennifer McKelvie to see what the UK can learn from the way Canada is ambitiously reshaping its approach to infrastructure as key to nation building. Thanks for your support in 2025. Have a listen here - https://lnkd.in/ectKZhJD or find all 144 episodes wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. Canada’s infrastructure moment is certainly right now as - like the UK - the nation wrestles with housing shortages, congested transport links, climate pressure and the need for increased economic growth. Add in the complexity of geopolitics and the on-going tariff war with the US Trump administration … As Jennifer pointed out to the recent Bentley Systems-backed Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit in Toronto last October, Canada is certainly reacting to the challenge with investment at scale and with speed. It has a renewed nation-building ambition and a transformation in the way it plans, funds and delivers major infrastructure - from new federal delivery agencies to the expanding role of the Canada Infrastructure Bank/ Banque de l'infrastructure du Canada. The UK and Europe could maybe learn from Canada’s approach?

The NHS New Hospital Programme is one of the most ambitious pieces of public infrastructure in a generation. In the latest episode of The Infrastructure Podcast , I explore Hospital 2.0: a standardised, industrialised approach to hospital design and delivery that aims to bring certainty on cost, quality and pace — while strengthening UK supply chains and capability. I’m joined by Emily King , Director of Industrialisation and Doug Baldock , Technical Servies Director who brilliantly explain this vast and transformational programme. Have a listen here or find it wherever you get your podcasts — search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. With a 12-year, £37bn pipeline, rolling five-year funding and urgent RAAC rebuilds to tackle, this conversation gets into what it will actually take to turn policy into delivery — and whether this model can reset how we build complex social infrastructure at scale. And perhaps also finally turn the manufacturing ambitions of the Latham and Egan reviews 30 plus years ago into reality. 🎧 Listen now and join the debate on what Hospital 2.0 means in reality.

This week’s episode of The Infrastructure Podcast was recorded last month at global infrastructure giant Bentley Systems’ annual Year in Infrastructure gathering in Amsterdam with Senior VP for the EMEA region Nathan Marsh and focuses on the challenges of digitising global infrastructure. I loved this conversation – grabbed in between conference sessions - have a listen here - or find it wherever you get your podcasts — search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Google or YouTube. After a career on all sides of the infrastructure fence – client, contractor, consultant and investor - Nathan shares his perspective on the challenges and opportunities ahead for the secort as it embraces digital tech and the power of AI. Oh, and Nathan also reflects on his two previous careers: - As a soldier in the British Army with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards - As a professional rugby play er with Birmingham Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club and at London Welsh Rugby Football Club

Ground movement: invisible perhaps but crucial to understand! This week on The Infrastructure Podcast , we dive into the fast-evolving world of digital ground movement monitoring with Daniel Scott , CTO and co-founder of Osprey Measurement Systems . a UCL spin-out bringing new levels of precision, speed and insight to how we measure the world beneath our feet. 🎧 Have a listen here - or find it wherever you get your podcasts - search “The Infrastructure Podcast” on Spotify, Apple, Amazon or on Youtube. The conversation explores Daniel’s career journey and how cutting-edge tech is transforming the way we protect and future-proof our railways, tunnels, utilities and cities and finds out about his spare time role as a special reservist with 507 Royal Engineers Squadron specialising in protecting (and disrupting) rail infrastructure. Have a listen as we get into: 🔹 The journey from university lab to real-world deployment 🔹 Digital tools that deliver smarter, safer infrastructure 🔹 What it takes to disrupt a traditionally risk-averse sector 🔹 How to balance being an engineering entrepreneur with being a Royal Engineers Specialist military reservist Enjoy!