In today’s podcast we explore the power of investment in infrastructure to change and improve people’s lives - every day.

My guest is David Porter, the newly installed 161st President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a man who throughout his career, has had public service top of mind, top of his agenda and etched throughout everything he does.

As a career civil servant in Northern Ireland, he knows better than most how important it is to work with communities - - and of course how civil engineering and infrastructure shapes almost every aspect of daily life-from the water we drink and the energy that powers our homes, to the transport networks and flood defences that keep the country moving and safe.

And yet, despite its central role, and as David points out, the profession often struggles to explain its value, earn public trust, or influence the decisions that matter most.

But we need to meet that challenge. The UK faces ageing assets, a stretched public purse, ambitious net zero targets, rapid technological change and growing public scepticism about long-term investment.

At the same time, the civil engineering profession is grappling with skills shortages, questions of capability, and how best to deploy emerging tools like artificial intelligence responsibly.

In his inaugural address last November, David argued that civil engineers need to change how they talk about their work - moving away from technical language and towards a clearer focus on the services infrastructure provides and the societal outcomes it enables.

He has also challenged clients, institutions and engineers themselves to raise their game: to become better communicators, better decision-makers and better stewards of long-term public value.

So let’s deep deeper to find out how to ensure civil engineering and infrastructure truly serves society in the decades ahead.

Resources

• David Porter's ICE presidential address November 2025
• ICE website
• ICE President’s Future Leaders initiative
• Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance summit London 25
• Routes to ICE membership
• Volunteering with ICE

We kick off the Infrastructure Podcast for 2026 by talking about nuclear power and taking a close look at the much discussed - and much anticipated - small modular reactor programme being developed by Rolls Royce SMR.

My guest today is Ruth Todd CBE, Rolls-Royce SMR’s Operations and Supply Chain Director, the person charged with turning this long-standing ambition into a deliverable reality. And having led the UK’s hugely successful Covid Vaccine Task Force back in 2020/21 and worked on High Speed 2, Ruth is no stranger to a massive challenge.

Certainly, delivering new nuclear in the UK is up there in the league table of major challenges. As the recent Fingleton Review put it, the sector is facing strategic failure at a moment of national importance.

We are certainly at a moment of profound transition. The global energy system is under strain from rising prices, geopolitical uncertainty, and the urgent need to decarbonise.

But it is also true that the UK government has responded with one of the most ambitious interventions in its energy history: major investment in Sizewell C, fusion research, and crucially, £2.5bn to accelerate the development and deployment of SMRs.

And at the heart of this renewed ambition for a new “golden age of nuclear energy” is the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor programme - described as the UK’s first domestic nuclear technology in more than twenty years and designed to provide stable, affordable, emission-free energy for at least six decades.

Rolls-Royce SMR’s approach uses factory-built modules, a standardised design, and a turnkey engineering, manufacture and assembly model which aims to reduce the cost and delivery challenges that have plagued traditional large-scale nuclear projects. And it has the go-ahead to deploy the first three SMRs at Wylfa in Anglesey.

Each will capable of powering a million homes, with a design that is up to eighteen months ahead of any competitor in a European regulatory process. Which arguably means Rolls-Royce SMR now sits at the forefront of what could become one of the country’s most significant green export industries and the key to thousands of new skilled jobs and longlasting local legacy.

It's certainly an exciting moment - so let’s hear more

Resources

• Rolls Royce SMR
• UK Government nuclear July announcement
• UK and Czechia to lead global race on small modular reactors
• The Fingleton Review
• Announcement for Wylfa site
• Ruth Todd CBE

In this last episode of 2025 we once again look at Canada’s infrastructure market to compare and contrast the global scale of investment ambition on that side of the Atlantic.

As such, it is my pleasure to welcome Jennifer McKelvie, Member of Parliament for Ajax, Ontario, and former deputy mayor of Toronto who has without question emerged over the last few years as one of the leading voices helping to steer Canada’s infrastructure investment transformation.

So first some background: Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its infrastructure journey. From housing shortages and strained transit systems to the growing impacts of climate change, the country faces pressures that span geography, sectors, and generations.

Yet this moment is also one of enormous opportunity. With a renewed federal focus on nation-building, Canada is reshaping how it plans, finances, and delivers the infrastructure that underpins its future prosperity.

In her recent address to the Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit hosted by Bentley Systems in Toronto, Jennifer outlined an ambitious vision for Canada to accelerate delivery of major projects, create of new federal agencies to drive housing supply, and strengthen the public-private partnership ecosystem.

Key initiatives such as the launch of the Major Projects Office, establishment of Build Canada Homes, and support for Canada Infrastructure Bank’s expanding footprint, underline this as a moment defined by scale, speed, and strategic intent.

And, of course, urgency - urgency to build and adapt in the face of an increasingly uncertain political relationship with the United States and to prepare communities for the climate realities already unfolding across the country.

Resources

• Jennifer McKelvie, Member of Parliament for Ajax, Ontario
• Canada Major Projects Office
• Build Canada Homes
• Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund
• Building Canada Strong
• Canada Public Transit Fund
• Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund
• Canada Infrastructure Bank
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit Toronto 2025