Infrastructure Investment Bill Directs £120m to East London Transport Projects

The Infrastructure Investment Bill, given royal assent on 3 July, assigns £120 million for transport and training schemes across five London boroughs, with Hackney listed for priority allocation in the accompanying budget paper.

Why the measure arrives now

Parliament approved the bill after the Treasury published revised capital spending totals for 2026-27 that raised the transport envelope by £1.8 billion nationally. Shoreditch sits inside the designated growth corridor identified in the Department for Transport’s March 2026 connectivity review, which flagged peak-hour crowding on the East London line and limited access to construction sites in the City fringe.

Local bus routes 55 and 388, used by 18,400 passengers on an average weekday, are named in schedule 4 of the bill as eligible for frequency increases once new depot capacity opens in 2028.

Jobs, services and daily costs for residents

Residents seeking work in logistics or site trades can access the new £4,200 training grant listed in clause 12, paid through Hackney Council’s adult education service. Construction firms awarded contracts under the bill must advertise 15 percent of positions through the Jobcentre Plus office on Commercial Street.

Commuters travelling from Shoreditch High Street station to Stratford will see an extra two trains per hour in the morning peak once the signalling upgrade funded by the bill is complete, according to the project timetable released by Network Rail on 6 July.

Small retailers on Kingsland Road stand to gain from the projected rise in footfall once the new bus lanes reduce journey times by an average of seven minutes, the traffic modelling in the bill’s impact assessment states.

Next steps require the Mayor of London to publish a delivery plan by 30 September, after which Hackney Council will consult on exact locations for the two new bus lanes and the training centre intake dates for the first cohort of 180 trainees.