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International

Bridging the infrastructure funding gap:

Attracting private capital to deliver the UK infrastructure strategy and exporting innovative financing solutions

23 April 2026
5 minutes
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Realising the UK’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy

The UK government has laid strong foundations for the acceleration of private investment in infrastructure. This has included efforts to streamline and accelerate regulatory processes to speed up project delivery, and engage with an expanding scope of investment support and risk mitigation models. The UK government’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, which was published in June 2025, puts investment at its core and adopts a ‘pro-business’ approach aimed at reducing barriers to investing in the UK.

This report aims to address two distinct, yet linked, primary objectives. Firstly, how to attract private capital at scale to fund infrastructure development in the UK using targeted financial and regulatory planning and innovation. Secondly, how to export this industry-driven innovation and expertise globally.

The vital role of private capital in the delivery of infrastructure

Alongside streamlining initiatives, such as the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and electricity grid connection reform, innovative financing and sophisticated risk mitigation strategies are being developed and deployed to accelerate investment of private capital. The UK’s widely used models - Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model, and pricing and revenue support including Contracts for Difference (CfDs) - offer proven, tailored solutions to manage construction, operational and demand risks. They provide revenue certainty that has successfully attracted private finance to significant undertakings such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel, Sizewell C, and numerous offshore wind farms. Dedicated government bodies, including the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), the National Wealth Fund (NWF), Great British Energy (GBE), and the Office for Investment (OfI), can play a core role in mobilising capital and supporting strategic infrastructure development.

While the UK is already a highly attractive jurisdiction for investment in major projects, it nevertheless faces a significant challenge in securing private capital essential for its ambitious infrastructure agenda. With available public funding falling significantly short of the estimated £1.7trn – £1.96trn infrastructure funding goals through to 2040, the resulting gap necessitates approximately £345bn in private capital over the coming decade. This critical need exists in a globally competitive environment, as other nations pursue their own strategies to attract capital for infrastructure development. Evidence suggests that closing this gap would yield substantial economic benefits as research has found that public investment in infrastructure has an average fiscal multiplier of about 1.5 in the medium term (two to five years).

As recognised by the government, and notwithstanding its commitments and strategies to address the challenges, attracting this vital private investment faces a series of persistent obstacles:

  • Investors seek long-term policy and regulatory  predictability, a consistency often lacking for projects designed to span multiple decades.
  • Overly complex regulatory frameworks for major projects can inflate transaction costs and cause delays, diminishing the UK’s attractiveness.
  • Project timelines can be further jeopardised by slow planning and consent processes. Compounding these issues are inconsistencies across government departments and a shortage of public sector expertise in complex project finance, procurement and contract management.

Recommendations to attract additional private capital to UK infrastructure

Further decisive action is required to optimise private sector engagement in major projects. The government must continue, and expand, its commitment to fundamental policy settings that
solidify the UK’s position as an investable destination.

To foster an environment to attract investment from private capital, the government needs to focus on four key areas:

1
Deliver stable and predictable regulatory frameworks for major projects, which minimise unnecessary complexity and are developed early so investors know what they are ‘buying into’.
  • Government should continue to pursue policies that provide as much upfront certainty and clarity as possible regarding sector support and intended investment structures. This requires durable cross-party consensus on national priorities and a consistent understanding of private capital’s fundamental role.
  • The replication or adaptation of proven delivery models, such as CfDs (which replaced the Renewables Obligation Certificates regime), the RAB model and Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC), are crucial to drive investor confidence and accelerate delivery. These models can enable lower-cost financing and improved return visibility for investors.
  • While historically used to great effect in the UK, PPPs are successfully deployed internationally. Reconsidering PPP models to support a range of sectors in the UK, building on past lessons, is warranted.
  • The government has recently invested in establishing the Infrastructure Pipeline tool with NISTA. We recommend providing a clear roadmap for investors within the Infrastructure Pipeline tool outlining the regulatory models available for investing in major infrastructure projects in the UK and key points of contact within government and relevant sectoral regulators responsible for overseeing delivery.
  • We also encourage government to commit to updating the Infrastructure Pipeline tool’s dashboard more frequently than the current six-monthly cycle, including more information and enabling comparisons across projects, which will allow investors to identify opportunities more easily.
2
Continue targeted strategic government support to unlock nationally significant projects.
  • UK public finance institutions, such as the NWF, can play a crucial facilitating role in de-risking nascent sectors, mobilising private capital for nationally significant projects and addressing market inadequacies where commercial finance may be hesitant or insufficient. This targeted support is particularly valuable for projects with high strategic national value, where government guarantees or credit enhancements can significantly reduce risk and lower the cost of capital.
  • Looking ahead, the UK should build on the strengths of its existing institutions while pursuing a gradual simplification of models involving public investment vehicles. This will create a more integrated system that uses targeted public capital to de-risk projects, sends strong investment signals and unlocks private capital at scale for long-term growth.
3
Ensure predictable long-term revenue streams, hedged against inflation.
  • Models like CfDs for low carbon energy and the RAB model for utilities have been integral in delivering the predictable income streams that are highly attractive to institutional investors, particularly in sectors otherwise exposed to variable market revenues. The government should continue to commit to supporting long-term revenue streams and actively pursue opportunities to extend these support models, to signal market confidence and facilitate continued private investment.
4
Provide clartity on ministerial responsibility and accountability for infrastructure and major project delivery.
  • The government has established and reformed core organisations such as the NISTA, the NWF, GBE and the OfI to support infrastructure delivery. These organisations have key roles to play in mitigating fragmentation and inconsistency across government departments. An integrated ‘whole-of-government’ approach is vital – with clearer ministerial responsibility for promoting infrastructure investment uniting all relevant government organisations and departments - for faster decision-making and effective public sector intervention.
  • Government investment in the development of its own people is crucial, particularly in strengthening commercial capability and capacity to enhance the performance of the government as a counterparty and stakeholder.
  • Beyond public sector capability, the government should use the workforce data (including expertise and roles) collected for the Infrastructure Pipeline tool to develop a strategy to ensure that the workforce is available and trained, helping to close the skills gap and support project delivery.

A concerted, collaborative effort between policymakers and the private sector, embracing these strategic recommendations, is essential to bridging the domestic funding gap but also to powerfully reinforce the UK’s leadership in shaping the future of global infrastructure.

Positioning UK expertise to capture global opportunities

The UK’s demonstrated experience in successfully attracting, structuring and deploying private capital for its domestic infrastructure agenda provides an opportunity to enhance its standing as a prominent global exporter of this expertise. The UK’s status as a global financial, legal and risk management hub, coupled with world-class engineering expertise and a proven track record in delivering megaprojects, is central to this position.

These capabilities provide the UK with an opportunity to export expertise globally, particularly to emerging and developed economies seeking advanced solutions. Enabling UK-based firms to secure global infrastructure contracts not only generates export revenues, but it also drives investment in local skills, innovation and production capabilities.

Recommendations to position UK strengths globally

To implement this objective, the UK should:

1
Ensure that the government’s industrial, trade and infrastructure strategies are mutually reinforcing.
  • The 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy and the establishment of new public bodies to support the development of UK infrastructure must also be viewed as an investment in boosting export capabilities, since UK infrastructure exports help to deepen and sustain resilient domestic supply chains.
  • Closer coordination between UK public bodies is essential to leverage these institutions’ different expertise, individually and collectively, to best support investment in priority policy areas and maximise the UK’s export potential in them.
2
Establish joint public-private working groups to tailor ‘Team UK’ pitches for individual markets and major global projects.
  • These efforts should prioritise rapidly expanding markets and develop tailored packages that showcase what UK capabilities can offer in each market. These pitches should represent the full breadth of the financial and related professional services industry’s strengths, including professional services capabilities, which are critical to bolstering the investability of developing economies, e.g. by strengthening legal, regulatory and procurement regimes.
  • This work should be used by UK embassies and high commissions in key markets to support UK companies by building relationships and identifying and creating opportunities for major commercial infrastructure partnerships.

The powerful synergies between a robust domestic strategy and an outward-looking, proactive export agenda will collectively ensure that the UK’s comprehensive infrastructure vision delivers sustained economic growth and enhances national resilience.

The time for decisive and collaborative action is now, transforming ambition into tangible, transformative progress.

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