Competition probe aims to boost UK civil engineering industry

Totis Kotsonis, public procurement expert, and Giles Warrington, competition law expert, at were commenting following the launch by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of a statutory market study into the civil engineering sector, focusing on the design, planning, and delivery of road and railway infrastructure across the UK. The move comes amid growing concerns over inefficiencies, rising costs and delivery delays in major infrastructure projects, which directly relate to the UK government’s recently published 10-year infrastructure strategy

The study aims to identify systemic issues within the sector and explore ways to improve collaboration between public authorities and private contractors. Through the study, the CMA will assess how the civil engineering sector operates to improve the design, planning and delivery of key infrastructure, reviewing whether reforms in public procurement practices and market operations could lead to more cost effective and timely infrastructure delivery.

The civil engineering sector has faced persistent challenges, particularly in delivering large scale transport projects. Road and railway infrastructure accounts for approximately 70-75% of spending on economic infrastructure, making it a critical area for scrutiny, according to the CMA.

Along with the assessment of current public procurement methods, the CMA will review whether the market is sufficiently competitive and work to identify any barriers to entry potentially limiting the participation of smaller firms. The CMA will also evaluate how public authorities access and use information to make procurement decisions, while exploring how risks are allocated between public and private actors, and whether this affects project outcomes.

Kotsonis said: “As the CMA correctly identifies in its statement of scope, public procurement plays a fundamental role in shaping the market structure and outcomes for large civil engineering infrastructure projects. The CMA’s initial research has uncovered challenges for the public bodies leading these procurements around accessing the right information, assessing different options, and designing and implementing their procurement strategies. Key to overcoming these challenges will be effective preliminary market engagement. This is an aspect of the procurement process which has been given greater focus in the Procurement Act 2023. By engaging earlier and in greater depth with the market before commencing a procurement procedure, the public body should be able to collect and consider the views of market participants, which will in turn inform and improve the design of the subsequent procurement.”

“More broadly, the market study also highlights the CMA’s growing focus on the intersection between public procurement and competition law enforcement,” said Kotsonis.

Market studies are an important statutory tool that the CMA can use to examine markets and seek to address competition and related concerns, in circumstances where other competition laws might not be applicable or sufficiently effective. For example, the CMA has recently used market studies to scrutinise the housebuilding, infant formula, and road fuel markets, as part of the authority’s broader work to contain cost of living pressures. Those market studies have led to various CMA recommendations including suggested legal reforms. 

If the CMA finds serious concerns at the conclusion of a market study, it may decide to launch an in-depth market investigation following which it can implement a wide range of remedies. 

The CMA has said that it does not currently expect a market investigation to result from the study. Instead, it is expected that the authority will make recommendations to the government and public sector procurers. The government has given a general commitment to respond to any CMA recommendations within 90 days.

Warrington said: “Civil engineering for road and rail is an important area of economic activity in its own right but also plays a pivotal role in enhancing business productivity across the wider UK economy.”

The market study was already foreshadowed in the CMA’s annual plan for 2025-26 which referenced “a particular focus on public procurement, as government pursues essential programmes to improve public services and invest in economic infrastructure”. The study also aligns with the UK government’s new strategic steer which called on the CMA to prioritise pro-growth and pro-investment interventions.

This is the first market study opened since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) came into force, and since the CMA announced its ‘4Ps’ framework – pace, predictability, proportionality and process. In line with this framework, the CMA published a roadmap to help explain how the market study will be carried out and to help facilitate effective stakeholder engagement, with plans to complete the study within 10 months. It has promised to engage with a wide range of participants across both the public/regulator sectors and private sectors during a proportionate and targeted information gathering process, “which may relieve the burden for participants compared with those normally associated with market studies”, said Warrington.

The CMA also promised to issue an “approach document” for its wider market studies and market investigations work, and to publish its revised markets regime guidance following an earlier public consultation to reflect changes resulting from the DMCC Act.

Interested parties are invited to respond by 17 July to the CMA’s consultation on the scope of the civil engineering market study (28-page / 372KB PDF). The authority will also arrange webinars to engage directly with industry participants, and with public authorities, to whom the impact of the market study may be of particular interest. The CMA expects to publish an interim report on its market study findings by the end of the year, with a final report set for publication next spring.