A seat at the table on the grid upgrade

Balfour Beatty, M Group and United Infrastructure have become the founding members of a new contractors' group set up by BEAMA, the trade body for electrical equipment suppliers, Construction News and Construction Enquirer reported this week. The Electricity Network Infrastructure Services Group gives contractors a direct route into the Electricity Networks Growth Partnership, the body BEAMA and the Energy Networks Association created to deliver the Electricity Networks Sector Growth Plan published on 20 October. United Infrastructure chairs the new group.

The growth plan sets out £181bn of network investment by 2035 and identifies the workforce needed to deliver it: more than 210,000 jobs across the sector and its supply chain, with around 71,000 new people needed to join the direct workforce over the next decade. The plan puts the wider economic benefit at £58bn, with as much as 72p in every £1 spent flowing through UK communities, according to Construction Enquirer's report.

Why it matters

Grid investment has been talked about as a bottleneck for years, holding back everything from housing connections to data centres and EV charging. What has changed is that the people who build the networks, not just the operators and suppliers, now have a formal channel into how the plan is delivered on the ground. That matters because contractors are usually the first to flag where skills, plant and materials run short, and the first to feel it when a programme slips.

The regional breakdowns in the plan give a sense of where the work lands. Insider Media reported the East Midlands alone could support 23,300 jobs by 2035, while the North East's figure is put at 9,950. Every region with a distribution network operator is in line for a share.

What it means for your career

If you are a QS, project manager or site manager with transmission or distribution experience, this is a decade-long pipeline, not a single contract. Distribution network operators and their Tier 1 and Tier 2 partners will be hiring steadily rather than in short bursts, which should mean more stable career paths than a typical construction cycle offers.

Cable installation, substation construction and overhead line experience will be in particularly short supply relative to demand, given the 71,000 figure is a net addition to a workforce that is itself ageing. If your CV has civils or M&E experience on energy infrastructure, now is a reasonable time to make sure it says so clearly. Commercial and QS roles that understand NEC-based framework delivery will also be sought after, since most of this work will be let through long-term partnering arrangements rather than one-off tenders.