Not So Good News (Hornsea 4, Harbour Energy),
Good News (Chelsea Flower Show, National Gallery,
London Power Tunnel, New data centers plan, New
reservoirs, Brownfield regeneration),
Professional conduct, Magic mushrooms
and White Stork Project
REPORT
By Dr. Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
As we move through the year, summer is just around the corner and the social projects that come with it begin to emerge. We have had the first major one, the Chelsea Flower Show (see short report later) and many sporting events, such as Wimbledon and Royal Ascot, are on the horizon. While we tend to look at these well-known events as part of the fabric of UK society, they are in fact, major projects. That they are so successful is due to meticulous planning, skilful execution and skilful supply chain management.
Not all projects are blessed with successful outcomes and a couple of big ones have hit the buffers in May so let’s get those out of the way before considering the good news.
NOT SO GOOD NEWS
The dominant feature of the year so far has been the uncertain trading environment being experienced not just in UK but throughout the world. It is difficult to say how this turbulence impacts projects, but one thing is certain, many strategic projects are on hold, and the finance underpinning some is threatened.
- Hornsea 4. Part of the huge offshore wind farm series, work on Hornsea 4 has been halted. Ørsted, owner and developer of the four linked projects that make up the world’s largest wind farm, has stopped spending on the project and is cancelling contracts. Higher supply chain costs and interest rates have been blamed for the decision. According to the Company website, the Hornsea Projects are four record-breaking offshore wind farms which Ørsted are operating, constructing and developing off the East Coast in the North Sea. These wind farms are a new generation of offshore power stations; further from the coastline than ever before, and at a scale which is a step-change in size from current wind farms. The first two phases, Hornsea 1 and 2, currently supply clean power to an=but 2,4 million homes. Hornsea 3 is under construction, but Hornsea 4 was still in the pre-application phase. It is not clear what impact the trading situation will have on Hornsea 3 but the national clean energy plans have suffered a major hit, as the Press have been quick to report.
- Harbour Energy. Not strictly a project failure but there can be little doubt that several projects will be affected as Harbour Energy, a major player in North Sea oil and gas production has reacted to sweeping tax changes announce by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year.
Image: Harbour Energy
Scott Barr, the managing director of Harbour’s UK business, said: “Harbour is launching a review of its UK operations, which we expect to result in a reduction of around 250 onshore roles in our Aberdeen-based business unit”. Harbour runs the Greater Britannia, J-area, Catcher and Tolmount North Sea fields. They also have interests in many other fields.
GOOD NEWS
Moving swiftly on to better news, there have been a number of project successes to celebrate.
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this work: Shepherd, M. (2025). UK Project Management Round UP, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VI, June. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/pmwj153-Jun2025-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up.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/.
