The National Infrastructure Spatial Tool (NIST) is a digital platform developed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which brings together strategies, data, analysis and modelling of infrastructure systems (including transport, energy, water, wastewater and communications) to test needs for, and constraints on, future scenarios of housing and industry. Spatial models of infrastructure underpin the tool and provide local projections of capacity and need. The National Infrastructure Strategy, published in June 2025, contains recommendations on spatial planning and infrastructure prioritisation.
This EPSRC-funded Impact Acceleration Account project seeks to engage with the modelling and analysis supporting this process, by working with government to advance and transfer methods for spatial infrastructure prioritisation and contributing to the development of the tool.