Our overview of the Department for Transport (DfT) examines its spending and performance. It brings together insights from our reports and other publicly available sources including DfT’s annual report and accounts.

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Key takeaways

Financial position

The Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) overall net spend in 2025-26 was £41.9 billion. It represents a real-terms decrease in net spend compared with 2024-25. The overall spend was made up of:

  • £21.2 billion net capital spend; and
  • £20.7 billion net resource spend.

Financial management

  • The High Speed Two programme (HS2) is forecast to cost more and complete later than envisaged in 2020. The current forecast completion cost is now between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion, around double its 2020 estimate, and completion is delayed by between around three and 13 years.
  • DfT has committed to reduce day-to-day spend by 5% between 2024-25 and 2028-29, while capital investment continues to increase. It plans to achieve this through lower subsidies to rail passenger services, workforce and operational efficiencies, and rail reform.
  • DfT has a historic pattern of significantly underspending against its resource plans (by between 12% and 17% over the years 2021-22 to 2025-26). The main reason for this is that depreciation has consistently been lower than forecast, primarily due to revaluations of rail and road network assets.

Resilience

  • The Climate Change Committee published a 2026 risk assessment which concluded that climate risks are increasing, and adaptation action is not keeping pace with the scale of risk.
  • Much of the UK’s transport infrastructure, such as roads, rail, power and data centres, is not currently designed to withstand the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
  • For the 2024–2029 funding period, Network Rail plans to invest £2.8 billion in strengthening the railway’s resilience to extreme weather and climate change.

Productivity

  • As part of the Spending Review 2025, DfT plans to deliver £663 million of efficiency savings per year by 2028-29.
  • This will be delivered through a combination of corporate efficiencies, regulated settlements with Network Rail and National Highways, and reform in its executive agencies.

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