Driving devolution: five lessons for initiating local transport programmes and projects

United Kingdom | 17 November 2025
Reading Time : 3 minutes

This article in our series on devolution and local government reorganisation looks at another big question facing all new or existing transport authorities. Whether a strategic mayoral authority or a foundation strategic authority: how do you ensure major programmes and projects get off to the best possible start?

Across England, transport leaders are navigating a new landscape. With the rise of strategic and foundation authorities and deeper devolution deals, the way we initiate and deliver transport programmes is evolving.

The direction of travel is for further devolution and a switch from a system of fragmented funding models to long-term settlements providing all devolved authorities with an Integrated Settlement, enabling them to take decisions and prioritise investment in key areas like transport and infrastructure.

While many authorities and their leaders will have experience of delivering complex projects, many existing organisations will receive far greater levels of funding for more substantial projects, and some new strategic mayoral authorities and foundation strategic authorities will be delivering major projects for the first time.

The pressure will be on authorities to ensure their major projects, from highways to tram networks, set off on the right track. We’ve drawn on our transport and infrastructure experience, as well as our history of working on national and local capital programmes and have identified five key areas to get project initiation right.

Kerry Bangle

Major Projects Director, WSP

United Kingdom

1. Don’t underestimate the importance of starting well

There’s a good reason why the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) places a strong emphasis on project initiation: starting well will give you the best chance of success. At the centre of the process should be the ultimate outcomes you want from the project – such as “faster journey times”, “improved air quality”, “increased capacity”, or “better connections between A and B”. Being clear from the outset about why you’re undertaking the project will enable you to cope better with challenges along the way and to focus on the value of the project when engaging with stakeholders.

2. Establish roles and responsibilities

Who needs to do what? Establishing and communicating roles and responsibilities is vital. This is particularly important as new strategic mayoral and strategic foundation authorities are being formed with responsibilities being delegated across new organisations. This will include teams of people that will have limited experience of working together. Local Government Reorganisation will make this even more complex. Clear governance and ways of working are critical to being efficient and agile. Our Transformation expert Leanne Smith Perrins has explored this in her article on high performing teams.

Organisations should also be clear about their expertise and ability to deliver the project and, in response, build any additional capacity they need. Finding the optimum delivery strategy, including procurement options, to deliver the outcomes they’re looking for is also a key activity. A strong sponsor or project champion will help to generate support and momentum for a project, holding it to account if needed, but helping it to navigate any challenges that may arise.

3. Don’t neglect project management

Major projects don’t just happen, they need extensive project management. This should be a core discipline for any major infrastructure project, and will account for at least 10% of the overall cost. At its core, good project management is about discipline and control: being clear about the outcomes and outputs you want (the why); the requirements (the what); processes for governance and making decisions (the how); and the schedule (the when). Being clear about these will help you to make the visible and robust trade-offs that will inevitably be needed as the project matures.

4. Co-create wherever possible

Stakeholders can make or break a project, so it’s important to involve them from the beginning and work hard to maintain their support. We’ve seen this first-hand. Loss of cross-party support has been a common decisive factor in the discontinuation of national, regional and city-scale infrastructure projects in the past five years.

With transport projects sometimes proving controversial, and often cited to differentiate political views to the electorate, it’s important to focus on the outcomes of the project (such as achieving cleaner air). And it’s equally important to be honest about the pain involved in getting there (such as disruption during construction works).

Keeping stakeholders onside and responding to their concerns is a major undertaking. A measure of its importance is that WSP has a dedicated and growing communications and engagement service that deliver work directly for clients around project advocacy and consultations.

Stakeholders can make or break a project, so it’s important to involve them from the beginning and work hard to maintain their support.

Kerry Bangle Major Projects Director, Transport and Infrastructure, WSP

Kerry Bangle Major Projects Director, Transport and Infrastructure, WSP

5. Consider the need for speed

The direction of travel to provide greater certainty around funding, including through Integrated Settlements, will provide devolved and local authorities with greater certainty and stability. However greater financial responsibility does bring new challenges and organisations will need to get used to increased scale of planning and delivering projects. This will be the case for existing Investment Funds linked to devolution deals as well as the long-term direction of travel with Integrated Settlements for Established Strategic Mayoral Authorities.

This means projects will need to move fast if they are to be delivered within the time period. For authorities with much larger complex projects, they will be expected to provide more assurance and can expect to attract an increased level of scrutiny from central government. This assurance needs to be taken account of in the project and programme delivery schedule.

But acceleration shouldn’t be undertaken lightly since it will increase risk. So everyone involved needs to buy into acceleration and the whole process needs to support it.

Nothing can guarantee that a major project will succeed, but we’ve seen how these five points can help get even the most complex projects off to a strong start.

Kerry Bangle, Major Projects Director, Transport and Infrastrucutre, WSP

Kerry Bangle is Major Projects Director in WSP’s Transport and Infrastructure business specialising in infrastructure and capital programme delivery in the UK and Australia. This includes work on the Elizabeth Line, High Speed Two, Airport expansion, East West Rail, the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London, Sizewell C.

Driving devolution

Our Driving devolution insight series aims to draw on our combined strategic and technical expertise to turn local authority ambition into action and deliver for communities.