The Government has today announced that Infrastructure UK (IUK) and the Major Projects Authority (MPA) are to merge, saying it will bring the Government’s expertise, knowledge and skills at managing and delivering major economic projects under one roof for the first time.
The new organisation, to be called the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, will bring together government expertise in the financing, delivery and assurance of the projects, which range from large scale infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel to major transformation programmes such as Universal Credit.
It will come into formal existence on 1 January 2016, reporting jointly to the Chancellor and Minister for the Cabinet Office, and its Chief Executive will be Tony Meggs, who is the current Chief Executive of the MPA.
It has also been announced today that Geoffrey Spence, the current Chief Executive of IUK, has decided to leave his current role and pursue a new challenge in the private sector.
Announcing the decision to merge the two organisations, Chancellor George Osborne said:
“By bringing together Infrastructure UK with the Major Projects Authority, and creating the new National Infrastructure Commission, we are moving to the next stage in our plan to ensure Britain’s economy gets the transformational projects it needs. “
IUK was established in 2010 to support major infrastructure projects involving public sector capital, such as Crossrail. It also negotiates infrastructure guarantees, under which up to £40 billion is available to support investment in UK infrastructure projects. It currently sits within HM Treasury and is staffed by around 70 civil servants and private sector commercial experts.
The MPA was established in 2011 with a mandate to oversee and assure the largest government projects, providing assurance of and support to those projects comprising the Government Major Projects Portfolio, some 200 projects totalling nearly £500 billion in public spending. It is housed in Cabinet Office, with a permanent staff of approximately 80 civil servants.
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