Industry Calls on Burnham to Create Department for Infrastructure as First Act as Prime Minister

ACE argues no incoming PM is better placed to end Whitehall’s infrastructure fragmentation, citing Burnham’s nine years navigating departmental complexity in Greater Manchester.

The Association for Consultancy and Engineering has written to Andy Burnham MP urging him to establish a dedicated Department for Infrastructure as one of his first acts upon entering Downing Street, as Westminster prepares for a change of Prime Minister with Burnham the sole declared candidate to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader.

ACE, which represents the sector responsible for designing and delivering the UK’s infrastructure, argues that responsibility for transport, energy, water, housing and digital is currently scattered across Whitehall, with competing budgets, priorities and timescales producing stop-start funding, duplicated effort and delayed delivery. A single Department for Infrastructure, the body contends, would create one front door for the industry and one consolidated pipeline – ending the fragmentation that has long undermined project delivery at a national level.

The letter draws directly on Burnham’s record as Mayor of Greater Manchester, where for nine years he navigated multiple departments and funding streams to deliver integrated programmes including the Bee Network. ACE argues that this experience makes him uniquely qualified to understand the structural problem – and uniquely motivated to fix it.

Milda Manomaitytė, Chief Executive of ACE, said: “No one in Whitehall absolutely owns infrastructure and it shows. Projects stall between departments, funding stops and starts, and projects get scrapped, delayed or blown overbudget. A Department for Infrastructure would help fix that and give industry the certainty to invest, innovate and deliver.”

For construction and infrastructure supply chain businesses, the proposal carries significant practical implications. Fragmented departmental ownership has been a persistent driver of the stop-start funding cycles that complicate long-term resource planning, supply chain investment and workforce development. A consolidated department with a unified pipeline would, in theory, provide the forward visibility that firms need to commit to capacity, skills and innovation.

The consultancy and engineering sector ACE represents employs over 470,000 people across the UK, contributes more than £39 billion to the economy, and exports over £11 billion in expertise globally each year.

Capability areas relevant to this discussion include: infrastructure planning and programme management, transport and highways, energy and utilities, water and drainage, digital infrastructure, housing delivery, and integrated place-based development.

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