The Government Major Projects Portfolio got a reboot this week, with its size vastly reduced after new rules were set for which projects should be included.
From 1 April, projects must meet the following criteria to be in the GMPP: support a top government priority; have whole-life costs of more than £1bn; and be a project that would benefit most from central support and scrutiny.
The new rules also state that, in exceptional circumstances, government may add projects to the GMPP where they are of particular strategic importance – such as those that are very high risk or underpin critical national infrastructure – and where NISTA’s support is expected to materially improve delivery confidence.
Implementing this more targeted approach, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, which took over the portfolio upon its formal launch on 1 April 2025, has reduced the size of the GMPP from more than 200 projects to 81 projects.
In an op-ed for CSW earlier this week on the changes, NISTA chief executive Becky Wood said a “smaller, more focused GMPP lets us do what the portfolio is supposed to do: target support and scrutiny at the projects that are most nationally significant, highest impact, and hardest to deliver”.
So which projects have made the cut?
There were 213 projects in the 2024-25 portfolio. Some 132 projects have been removed in the new April 2026 GMPP, according to CSW's crunch of the data.
This leaves 70 projects that have remained in the portfolio, with 11 newly-added.
Projects which have left the GMPP include:
- The Civil Service Pensions 2015 Remedy to repair botched reforms to public sector pensions, worked up by the coalition government, which were ruled illegal as they discriminated against some scheme members – which remains to be completed
- The HMCTS Reform Programme to improve the accessibility and efficiency of the justice system, which was completed last year
- The Manston Transformation Programme, which initially aimed to build sustainable infrastructure at the migrant processing centre, but will now consist of enhancements of the current facilities. The site is currently the subject of an inquiry into conditions encountered by detainees between June and November 2022.
Projects added to the portfolio include the troubled UK Health Security Campus programme, which makes a return to the portfolio having left it in 2023-24.
Another addition to the portfolio is ‘Project Seahorse’ – the creation of the new Warm Homes Agency, a dedicated public body to support the delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, which aims to cut energy bills and upgrade homes.
The programme to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England, one of Labour’s key manifesto pledges, has also been added to the portfolio.
The eleven additions are:
- Breakfast clubs (DfE)
- Drive35 (DBT)
- EU Delivery Programme (Defra)
- Families First Partnership Programme (DfE)
- Flood And Coastal Risk Management Investment Programme 2026-2029 (Defra)
- Future Air Dominance System (MoD)
- Heathrow Expansion Programme (DfT)
- Hydrogen Allocation Round 2 (DESNZ) – replaces Hydrogen Allocation Round 1, which was in the previous portfolio
- Project Seahorse (DESNZ)
- Social And Affordable Homes (MHCLG)
- UK Health Security Campus (DHSC)
Projects which have remained in the portfolio include the Manchester Digital Campus, which is due to accommodate 8,800 officials from across government and recently got Treasury approval.
Another remainer is the delayed NS&I Transformation Programme, which is running four years late and £1.3bn over budget. Last year the state-owned bank brought in former Ministry of Defence chief operating officer David Goldstone to help bring the programme back on track. And last week it brought in ex-HM Revenue and Customs boss Jim Harra to fix a bereavement claims scandal.
Other mainstays include: the Home Office's Asylum Transformation Programme to improve people capabilities, process and technology underpinning asylum casework, and asylum support and accommodation; the farcical HS2 Phase 1; and HMRC's Making Tax Digital initiative, which is a whole-system change to the administration of VAT and Income Tax Self-Assessment tax regimes, and is now more than a decade in the works.
Click here to view all the projects in the current portfolio.