The UK infrastructure sector is entering one of the most structurally significant periods of investment in recent history. After decades of stop-start funding, the government’s long-term strategy has unlocked a pipeline of projects that stretch across energy, transport, water, digital and social infrastructure and that’s creating real, sustained demand for people who can deliver on the ground and in specialist roles.
Public investment commitments now total at least £725bn over the next decade, backed by a 10-year UK Infrastructure Strategy and a national pipeline of 780 major projects. That’s a decisive shift from reactive, short-cycle funding into planning with visibility and scale. This isn’t about one or two headline schemes. It’s about simultaneous upgrades to roads, rail, power networks, water systems, hospitals, schools and digital connectivity, often happening in the same regions and competing for the same skills. Forecasts show infrastructure output rising in 2026 compared with 2025, with growth accelerating into 2027 as programmes ramp up, even if it’s more steady acceleration than a dramatic boom.
Where the Activity Will Be Strongest
Across the sector, demand is broad and deep:
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Energy transition and utility infrastructure: Including electricity transmission upgrades, offshore wind, water and environmental programmes.
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Social infrastructure: Hospitals, schools and justice estates with major rebuild and upgrade programmes.
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Transport upgrades: Focused on maintenance, electrification and regional connectivity rather than new high-speed lines.
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Digital and data-enabled systems: Supporting productivity, asset management and resilience.
This mix creates job opportunities right across construction and engineering, from civil engineering and project delivery to digital and operational specialists.
While the investment story is strong, the biggest challenge isn’t money, it’s delivery capacity. Skills shortages now represent the most significant drag on getting projects built. The sector will need more than 250,000 additional workers by 2028, with shortages most acute in civil engineering, project management, digital engineering, utilities, power systems and specialist trades. Add in the fact that over a third of the current workforce is over 50 and the pipeline of new entrants isn’t yet replacing retirees, and you start to see why competition for talent is intensifying. These dynamics are reflected in independent forecasts pegging infrastructure output growth at between roughly 3.9% and 4.4% in 2026, with public and private pipelines worth hundreds of billions supporting that growth.
Planning complexity, constrained supply chains, labour shortages and execution risk are now the real brakes on delivery, not the availability of capital.
That creates a real opportunity for organisations who get workforce strategy right:
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Build flexible and integrated teams that can adapt to overlapping programmes
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Focus on skills pipelines and apprenticeships, not just filling roles
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Work with specialist recruiters who understand niche technical requirements and how to scale quickly as projects start
2026 is shaping up to be a year where the companies that treat workforce capability as a strategic asset will outperform those reliant on traditional, reactive hiring.
For candidates, this means strong demand across a range of roles; from site supervision and project management to civil, electrical and digital engineering.
For employers, it means talent scarcity will remain a central challenge. Organisations that can:
will be the ones that win in a crowded hiring landscape.
Call Our Civils & Infrastructure Team
If you’re hiring for an infrastructure project or looking for your next role in civils, now is the time to get ahead of the curve.
Speak to our Civils & Infrastructure team today to discuss current vacancies, upcoming projects, or how we can help you build a workforce that’s ready for 2026 and beyond. Whether you need one key hire or a full project team, we’ll help you secure the right people, quickly.
The Civils team: 0113 203 1246