Not So Good News (Project Delays, Abandoned Project, Crunched Numbers),
Other Project News (Heathrow Alarm, Artificial Intelligence, Lego Rules),
Good News (Cornish Projects, Thermal Energy, Battery Storage Project,
Tidal Power, Power Project Investment Approved, Space Station Protection),
Society News (new publications) and Closing Remarks
(New National Forest, Harry Mice, Black Turbines
and Fish Disco)
REPORT
By Dr. Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
It is now officially Spring and a young man’s fancy turns to things that are best not discussed here. Instead, we will follow up on the theme of project delay and its implication for stakeholders, following a trend we reported last month. There is some good news of new projects and some not so good news of continuing problems with official numbers.
Just when you might have hoped some well-known projects had received all the attention they deserve, we learn more about HS2, Heathrow expansion plans and more unsubstantiated claims about Artificial Intelligence. Finally, my reservations about de-extinctions are justified by the results of an experimental breeding programme.
NOT SO GOOD NEWS
- More Delay. As Project Managers, we know that delay manifests in different ways and can have various outcomes. For one of our more effective defence firms, Qinetiq, it has meant a tricky time in the Stock Exchange as it released an unscheduled trading update as it blamed short-cycle work in its UK intelligence and US sectors which resulted in further delays to a number of contract awards. Project delays have also affected Severfield, the structural steel group whose best known project is the Shard. It also counts the London Olympic Stadium and Lord’s Cricket ground amongst it past portfolio. Severfield said delays and cancellations have caused a reduced profit, citing an unnamed “large project” whose start date has slipped from January this year to sometime next year. This warning resulted in a 45% drop in their share price.
- Abandoned Project. We previously reported the £450 million project to build a pharmaceutical plant in an area of high unemployment. Now we learn that the underlying cause of this loss was mostly due to the government missing the company’s internal deadline. Shaun Grady, their UK chairman said: “We don’t have any regrets that we repeatedly made clear the critical importance of that August deadline.” told members of the Commons’ business and trade select committee. For many observers, this inability of the Government to appreciate basic business imperatives sits ill with their declared intent to attract private sector investment to help lift a stagnating economy. The Times subsequently reported AstraZeneca’s UK president, Tom Keith-Roach, telling MPs that “the UK really is an outlier now as one of the most difficult places in the world” in which to bring new medicines to patients.
- Crunched Numbers. The problems with Government
numbers continue as the Office of National Statistics (ONS), usually a beacon of accuracy and stability, has been forced to suspend its inflation data after errors undermined the reliability of the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the services producer price index (SPPI). These, and other key statistics, are significant for projects as they show trend information that affects long term estimation and pricing forecasts. The problems, according to Press reports, stems from a programme to restructure the ONS labour market survey. Image: The Conversation.com
OTHER PROJECT NEWS
- Heathrow Alarm. The latest scare story concerning the potential expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport comes not from Eco Warriors but the from the Airport’s boss, Thomas Woldbye…
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2025). UK Project Management Roundup, report, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue IV, April. Available online at http://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pmwj151-Apr2025-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up-report-2.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Dr. Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He is currently Chairman of the British Standards Institute project management committee. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
