Why don’t we look back in anger? If we did, would we find out why infrastructure projects are plagued by unrealistic objectives, missed deadlines and overspent budgets?

Indepen Exchange · Nov 5, 2026 · 56m · transcript

If you look across UK infrastructure, one pattern keeps repeating itself. Projects run over budget, miss deadlines, and fall short of what they promised. And the uncomfortable truth is—we’ve known why this happens for decades.

So why aren’t we getting any better?

In this episode, we’re going to get under the skin of that question. Because behind every missed target or overspent programme, there are decisions being made about ambition, about risk, about cost, and ultimately, about who pays.

And those decisions are rarely straightforward.

Here at Indepen, we sit at the intersection of…