BY NICHOLAS WINNING

LONDON—With some £400 billion ($633 billion) of state infrastructure projects in the pipeline, the U.K. government is setting up an academy to hone the leadership skills of its top civil servants to make sure they deliver on time and on budget.

The Major Projects Leadership Academy, in partnership with Oxford University's Saïd Business School, also aims to reduce the overreliance on expensive external consultants to deliver big state projects, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said Tuesday.

"This is meant to deal with the issue we have of large numbers of very bright, able civil servants who have risen to positions ...