The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson have published a landmark joint report calling for a fundamental reform of the legal and commercial framework governing public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the UK. 

They warn that without decisive action, Britain may continue to fall behind international competitors in mobilising private investment for social and economic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, prisons and transport projects.

The report, Pipeline to Progress: Making UK Infrastructure Investable, was released today (19 May) at the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds. 

It sets out a comprehensive blueprint for a modern PPP programme built around six pillars: a standardised national legal architecture, proportionate risk allocation, auditable social value, flexible financial structures, strengthened governance and accountability and a clear delivery pipeline through mayoral and combined authorities. It contains more than 20 specific recommendations directed at the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), and contracting authorities, with defined timeframes for implementation of between three months and two years.

The UK Government has bold ambitions to deliver 1.5 million new homes and 150 nationally significant infrastructure projects within this parliament, with plans to allocate £725bn over the next decade featuring in the 10-year infrastructure strategy. Constrained fiscal headroom and a challenging economic landscape means it is unlikely that public funds alone will achieve this.

Craig Elder, Partner in public procurement at Browne Jacobson, said: “Although learning from the past and building on what worked in previous models, this report is resolutely forward-looking. 

“It focuses on practical approaches that can be implemented now to set out a legal and contractual framework that enables public and private sector collaboration when tackling the UK's infrastructure deficit. 

“The market is clear: there is appetite to support UK infrastructure where risk is balanced, pipelines are credible and contracting is agile. Clarity of intent is a vital signal that government can make to crowd in investment.”

A new legal architecture for PPPs

Developed in partnership with the CBI's Infrastructure Working Group – comprising more than 60 businesses operating across the UK – Pipeline to Progress draws on evidence gathered from the investment, construction, advisory and operator communities, alongside public sector leaders.

Structured around six reform pillars, the report provides a comprehensive and actionable blueprint for transforming UK infrastructure delivery:

• A modern delivery system: Reframing PPPs as outcome-led, lifecycle stewardship models focused on measurable social value and regional rebalancing.
• A standardised legal architecture: Replacing bespoke, costly drafting with a nationally mandated framework: standardised at its core, locally adaptable at its edges.
• Proportionate risk allocation: Ensuring risk sits with the party best placed to manage it, and that unpriceable risks such as planning and policy change remain with the public sector.
• Auditable social value and innovation: Moving social value from procurement scoring to fundable, measurable KPIs embedded in contracts and verified over an asset's lifetime.
• Finance matched to delivery risk: Supporting blended finance structures and staged financing that scale with project maturity and attract long-term institutional capital at lower cost.
• Stronger governance and stewardship: Establishing a central PPP delivery body that retains long-term institutional memory, professionalising public sector commercial capability, and insulating programmes from short-term political cycles.

Transparency at heart of new PPP models

In designing a central PPP delivery body, the report draws directly on Ireland's National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) as a blueprint, noting that by combining commercial capability, template governance and programme-level oversight, the NDFA gives investors confidence, reduces bid costs and prevents contractual drift. 

This body would be responsible for enforcing transparency requirements, which sit at the heart of learnings from previous PPP models like the private finance initiative (PFI), where commercial confidentiality frequently obscured performance from public scrutiny.

While PFI supported more than 700 public infrastructure projects from the late 1990s until 2018, it attracted criticism for perceived drawbacks including a lack of flexibility and transparency, as well as poor value risk transfer.

The report is unambiguously in favour of transparency: all PPPs should be subject to mandatory disclosure of refinancing events, ownership changes and key performance information. Contract structures should be publishable as standard with only limited, justified redaction.

On devolution, the report calls for a fundamental shift in the relationship between central government and combined authorities, with metro mayors given autonomy over what is delivered, where and in what sequence, within multi-year settlements.

Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Executive of the CBI, said: “The UK stands at an important moment for infrastructure. The ambition set out by government is clear and welcome. 

“The challenge now is delivery: ensuring that plans translate into projects that can be built, operated and maintained at scale, and at pace. This report is grounded in a simple proposition: financing is not the constraint. 

“What is constrained is priceable, patient capital aligned to delivery risk and pipeline certainty. The binding issue is whether the UK offers credible, investable propositions supported by consistent pipelines, clear risk allocation and professional stewardship over the life of assets.”

Pipeline to Progress: Making UK Infrastructure Investable is published by the CBI in partnership with Browne Jacobson.

View the report