Industry News HubMorgan Sindall Construction has been selected as preferred partner to deliver a £67.9m business school for the University of Salford, with construction expected to start in April 2027. The contractor will work with the design team during a pre-construction phase running until March next year.…
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M Group has acquired Kettering-based HVSS, adding more than 120 staff and strengthening its position in the market for high-voltage electricity connections. The acquisition adds expertise in high-voltage engineering, multi-utility connections and private electricity networks to the infrastructure contractor’s energy business. Founded in 2010, HVSS…
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MRW Government Plastic Packaging Tax analysis mulls market impact Evaluation of levy suggests enhanced use of recycled materials and positive environmental impact, but finds limited evidence of behaviour change impact Government Plastic Packaging Tax analysis mulls market impact Daniel Bosley Read More
MRW UK DRS operator releases certified reverse vending machines list Exchange for Change updated list will provide retailers with information on compatible systems to collect packaging and return deposits, while it also outlines scheme artwork standards UK DRS operator releases certified reverse vending machines list Neil Merrett Read More
MRW English council reform plans proposed to proceed in five areas The government says it is ‘now minded to proceed’ with the formation of multiple new unitary authorities in England following a recent decision to pause and review plans English council reform plans proposed to proceed in five areas Neil Merrett Read More
Infrastructure does not work in isolation. Transport, water, power and communications networks depend on one another, so pressure on one can disrupt the others and affect the systems, communities and businesses rely on every day. The task is therefore to plan, build and operate infrastructure as an interconnected system, with these dependencies clearly understood.
Extreme weather is one example that brings these interdependencies into sharp focus. As we have seen time and again in recent years, heat, water scarcity, flooding and other pressures rarely stay within one sector: water constraints can disrupt energy and industry, while power outages can quickly affect transport and communications. Because the systems supporting society are connected, disruption in one can quickly cascade through the rest.
Looking at each sector independently obscures where pressure in one area could create consequences elsewhere. Resilience cannot be addressed sector by sector; it requires a holistic view of the networks and dependencies that bind our infrastructure together.
Individual assets remain critical. Roads, railways, water networks, power infrastructure and buildings still require maintenance, renewal and strengthening. But investment decisions should reflect how each asset depends on, and affects, the wider network.
The physical connections between infrastructure create a corresponding digital challenge.
Planning, design, construction and operations generate huge volumes of data. When those records remain fragmented across organisations, technologies and lifecycle stages, building a complete picture of an asset and its wider context becomes much harder.
Managing infrastructure as a connected physical system depends on linking the information that describes it. Engineering models, geospatial reality data, subsurface intelligence and operational records should provide a shared context for action. Together, these sources show professionals how an asset relates to its surroundings, how conditions are changing and where dependencies or vulnerabilities lie.
This connected context is also what makes AI useful for infrastructure. A model can only produce trustworthy, relevant options when it is grounded in the reality of the project: design intent, site conditions, engineering standards, construction changes and operational performance. Connecting those threads turns fragmented records into a durable body of knowledge that can support better decisions across the asset lifecycle.
Digital twins provide an important capability here. By combining data about assets and networks, they create the context needed to assess changing conditions and emerging risks, while giving AI a reliable foundation for analysis. Engineers and operators can use that shared view to track performance, detect developing stress, test potential responses and see how changes in one area could affect another.
That visibility enables owners and operators to assess evolving conditions, anticipate consequences and act before a problem becomes a failure.
AI can extend this visibility by analysing more variables and testing more scenarios than conventional workflows allow. But infrastructure decisions have physical consequences, so the use of AI must be governed by engineering judgement and grounded in project realities, standards and performance criteria. AI can generate and compare options at speed; engineers remain responsible for defining intent, navigating trade-offs and deciding what is safe and appropriate.
Infrastructure organisations should move from reactive maintenance to predictive resilience. Doing so requires them to identify vulnerabilities sooner, prioritise the interventions that matter most and assess potential knock-on effects before disruption spreads.
Infrastructure projects must be designed, delivered and operated as dynamic, connected systems from the outset. Digitising individual processes is not enough if information and workflows remain trapped in traditional silos. Every stage from planning and design through construction and operation should preserve the connections needed to understand and manage the whole system.
Choices made during planning and design determine how effectively an asset can be understood, maintained and adapted throughout its life. Artificial intelligence can expand engineering capacity by helping teams evaluate more scenarios, detect patterns and optimise designs against multiple constraints. But those capabilities depend on trusted data and deep engineering context, while professional judgement remains essential when navigating trade-offs. AI should inform decisions, not become the objective itself.
Britain will continue to need investment in roads, railways, water, energy, communications and the built environment. But strengthening individual assets is only part of the resilience challenge.
We must also account for how those assets interact: shifting from isolated assets to integrated networks, from fragmented data to shared context and from reacting to disruption to identifying vulnerabilities earlier.
Technology cannot prevent extreme heat, flooding, water scarcity or other pressures. It can, however, help those responsible for our infrastructure build the broader view needed to anticipate consequences and respond as conditions change.
Ultimately, resilience is not simply about making individual infrastructure assets stronger. It is about designing every asset as part of an integrated system, building with those connections in mind and operating with them front of mind. Infrastructure must function as a system if it is to navigate the changing demands of this decade and those to come.
*Please note, this is a commercial profile.
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Consistently delivering sustainability in construction, project after project, is proving much harder, according to the NBS Sustainable Futures Report 2026: The state of sustainability across the construction lifecycle.
Dr Lee Jones, head of sustainability at Hubexo, NBS’ parent company, explained: “The conversation around sustainable construction is evolving. Awareness of embodied carbon, lifecycle assessment and Environmental Product Declarations has grown.
“But many organisations still lack the skills, processes, and data they need to measure their impacts and track progress, and the gap between ambition and implementation remains clear.”
Specification is the clearest point of agreement, with more than eight in ten respondents (86%) expressing that a well-written specification matters for sustainable outcomes.
75% of respondents said lifecycle assessment matters, suggesting whole-life thinking is now widely accepted across the industry.
However, the study finds that day-to-day practice is less consistent. Only around half (53%) measure and report on sustainability across all or most of their projects, and just under half (48%) say their intended outcomes are achieved always or frequently.
“Decisions made early on and during the design stage have a profound influence on how a building performs, which is why a rigorous specification is important for sustainable outcomes. But specification is only as good as the data behind it,” Jones commented.
“The industry needs to work more closely than ever to ensure project teams have transparent, verified product information. It is at different stages, and there’s no single fix. Progress depends on better information, more consistent measurement and closer collaboration.”
The barriers are practical ones. Cost tops the list (60%), followed by a lack of client demand (42%), sustainable products being value-engineered out (32%) and a shortage of people with the right skills (25%).
Respondents see clients as the most influential group on a project (68%), yet client demand is the second-biggest barrier to delivering sustainable outcomes.
Moreover, only 42% of professionals named a regular, trusted source of sustainability data. That means well over half the industry (58%) needs a source to rely on. Since the last report, AI search is now referenced in around 14% of responses.
In the previous Sustainable Futures study, AI didn’t feature at all, showing how quickly this topic has moved up the agenda. The rising influence of AI makes it a natural place to look for general information, but this carries the real risk of unverified data reaching specification decisions.
Demand for better product data is clear. Most respondents (83%) want manufacturers to provide more sustainability performance data, and 43% look for EPDs when selecting products.
Dr Stephen Hamil, Innovation Director at Hubexo, said: “Our Sustainable Futures study tracks how those designing and specifying buildings, alongside the manufacturers supplying the products and materials, are responding to the sustainability challenge. It’s clear the conversation has moved on.
Those making specification decisions increasingly understand what more sustainable choices look like, while manufacturers recognise the need to provide the products, information and evidence to support them. The challenge now is turning that understanding into action.”
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Chris Hallam is a partner at international law firm CMS
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Almost half of residential buildings with life-critical fire-safety defects covered by the developer remediation contract have yet to start repairs, government figures show. At 30 September 2026, work had not begun on 1,266 of the 2,682 affected buildings (47 per cent). Nearly a third of…
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James Morris is a partner at Mayer Brown Could your company be held liable for building defects it had nothing to do with? Under the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) – the most significant statutory intervention into the construction sector’s liability landscape for a generation…
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