Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Public bodies lack necessary in-house specialist skills for managing private finance projects
Conclusion
The Public Accounts Committee has, in recent years, frequently drawn attention to how public bodies lack the necessary in-house skills to deliver on plans and programmes.39 We also heard from Mr Dalgleish that the lack of a credible pipeline has meant investment cannot be deployed, resulting in skills and labour going elsewhere, including the international market.40 Using private finance to support investment requires public bodies to develop and maintain specialist skills.41 The government requires access to sufficient specialist expertise at reasonable costs to work across organisational boundaries to support technical, commercial and financial assessments and decision-making. In recognition of these challenges, the government has created specialised delivery organisations and functions with the purpose of consolidating centres of expertise that other public sector organisations can draw from.42
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and sets an October 2026 target, committing to expand existing initiatives like Skills England and the Office for Clean Energy Jobs to identify and address the public sector's private finance skillset and workforce requirements.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: October 2026 4.2 The government recognises that a step-change in infrastructure investment will require specialist private finance capacity and capability, as well as other specialist workforce skills. Government has engaged widely with industry during the development of the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, and will continue to work in partnership with the private sector and a wide range of stakeholders to unlock capital and build confidence in the UK. 4.3 The government is already building capability across government by providing training for some aspects of private finance. NISTA holds network events for private finance experts across central and local government to facilitate networking, encourage the sharing of expertise, and improve learning. NISTA also provides training for PFI contract managers on several topics including contract expiry and will be publishing PFI contract and performance management guidance later in 2025 to help authorities improve the management and performance of their contracts. Finally, the Treasury, NISTA and UK Government Investments lead on the government's corporate and project finance professions which support learning and development, postmortem analysis and professional skills. 4.4 In the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, the government committed to understand the UK’s infrastructure skills requirements – to better identify where it needs to provide support. Skills England will collate a national picture of skills gaps by working closely with mayoral strategic authorities, while bodies such as the Office for Clean Energy Jobs will build a clear picture in individual sectors. The Infrastructure Pipeline data will also provide insight on the scale and range of construction skills required, which will support Skills England in understanding and addressing critical skills gaps. The government will expand the scope of these existing initiatives to capture how the public sector can build, attract and retain the necessary private finance skillset and workforce to deliver greater infrastructure investment.