The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), established in April 2025, is a

public agency In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

advising the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

on infrastructure delivery and improvement. It combines the functions of the former

National Infrastructure Commission The National Infrastructure Commission was an executive agency responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK, between 2015 and April 2025, when it was superseded by the National Infra ...

and the

Infrastructure and Projects Authority 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 in ...

History

In May 2024, ahead of the

2024 United Kingdom general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a lan ...

, the Labour Party announced plans to merge the National Infrastructure Commission with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority in order to speed up the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK. Plans were also announced to create a 10-year National Infrastructure Strategy. These recommendations were drawn from Labour's Major Capital Projects Review, led by Paul Addison, who at the time was working with the engineering company Arup. In October 2024, the Labour

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...

Rachel Reeves Rachel Jane Reeves (born 13 February 1979) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West and Pudsey, formerly Leed ...

convened the inaugural meeting of the British Infrastructure Taskforce, with representatives of major financial companies in attendance, to build business confidence in UK infrastructure investments and start development of a ten-year infrastructure strategy, to be supported by NISTA. In December 2024,

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

started the process of recruiting NISTA's first chief executive, a £200,000-a-year role leading a team of around 240 civil servants and advising on "the improvement of quality, cost, schedule, performance and project outcomes". In January 2025, it was confirmed that NISTA would be established in April 2025 and would be a joint unit of HM Treasury and the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

, with

Chief Secretary to the Treasury The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is a senior ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom and is the second most senior ministerial office in HM Treasury, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The office holder is always a full ...

Darren Jones Darren Paul Jones (born 13 November 1986) is a British politician who has served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury since July 2024, having previously been Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from September 2023 to July 2024. A member of ...

as the responsible minister, and Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler as principal accounting officer. NISTA was launched on 1 April 2025, with the commissioners of the abolished National Infrastructure Commission forming a Council of Expert Advisors, chaired initially by Sir

John Armitt Sir John Alexander Armitt (born 2 February 1946) is an English civil engineer, and the final chairman of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission. From 2007 Armitt was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body which organised the ...

, and with Jean-Christophe Gray as interim chief executive. The Treasury said a permanent chief executive would be appointed "shortly", and on 16 April it announced Becky Wood would take office as CEO in June 2025. The Treasury and the Cabinet Office were reported to be working on a memorandum of understanding regarding the relationship between NISTA and the two departments.

References

{{Cabinet Office 2025 establishments in the United Kingdom Cabinet Office (United Kingdom) Economic development in the United Kingdom HM Treasury Infrastructure organizations Public bodies and task forces of the United Kingdom government