The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are currently undertaking a market study into the supply of railway and public road infrastructure by the civil engineering sector.
The CMA's aim in launching the market study was to complement and support the government reforms by identifying opportunities to further improve how the civil engineering market for rail and road performs. In particular, their focus is on:
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how market interactions between public bodies and the business supply chain could best incentivise cost-effective delivery of rail and road infrastructure; and
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whether public procurement and regulatory processes could make it easier for firms to enter, expand, invest and innovate.
The CMA released their Interim Report for this market study on 17 December 2025. Read the interim report.
The CMA's provisional view is that the market is caught in a negative cycle of inefficiency. This negative cycle is leading to poor outcomes including high costs, frequent project overruns, and low investment in new approaches. The CMA's assessment is that there are root causes contributing to this negative cycle including pipeline uncertainty, procurement authority capacity constraints, procurement policy and approaches, and regulatory barriers.
Trowers' response to the CMA's report is to endorse the approach of "Constructing the Gold Standard – An Independent Review of Public Sector Construction Frameworks" and the Construction Playbook in setting out the principles of alliancing, early supply chain involvement, and standardised framework relationships as being equally applicable to infrastructure projects in creating efficiency and success.
The CMA requested stakeholders to provide their thoughts on the Interim Report by 28 January 2026. The CMA will then publish its final report which is scheduled to be released in March-April 2026.
