Scottish Water has unveiled a £13.4bn investment programme aimed at protecting and modernising the nation’s water and wastewater infrastructure over the six-year period from 2027 to 2033. The publicly owned utility said the plan is designed to future-proof ageing assets, respond to climate change pressures and sustain service standards, while maintaining some of the lowest customer charges in the UK. Of the total investment, £8bn will be directed towards maintaining and upgrading core infrastructure, including pipes, treatment works and associated assets. The remaining funding will cover essential operating expenditure to ensure services continue to run safely, reliably and efficiently. The programme will be delivered across Scotland, with the utility highlighting its potential to support employment, skills development and regional supply chains. Scottish Water said the plan reflects extensive engagement, with more than 25,000 people contributing feedback during its preparation. Chief executive Alex Plant said the blueprint balances long-term resilience with affordability. He noted that customers had made clear the need to safeguard essential services while ensuring investment remains fair and proportionate. As a publicly owned body, Scottish Water reinvests all income into its network and services. The organisation said its charges remain among the lowest of any UK water utility and emphasised that financial support schemes will continue for households requiring assistance. Currently, more than 53 per cent of customers receive some form of support. To fund the proposed programme, Scottish Water has put forward annual increases in customer charges of 3.3 per cent above CPI. The utility argues that this approach will provide the financial stability needed to address infrastructure resilience, environmental compliance and climate adaptation over the coming decade. The proposals have now been submitted to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland for regulatory scrutiny. A draft determination is expected in June, with a final determination scheduled for October 2026. This will confirm investment levels and customer charges for the 2027–2033 regulatory period, ahead of a detailed Delivery Plan being published in advance of the new cycle. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

BarhaleEnpure JV has completed an ?18m phosphorus removal programme at Dewsbury Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) in West Yorkshire to help improve water quality in the River Calder. Delivered in partnership with Yorkshire Water, the scheme has achieved a 90% reduction in phosphorus levels in the final effluent at the WwTW, exceeding Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) targets for England. Fourteen existing primary settlement tanks (PSTs) have been replaced with three new larger tanks and two new primary sludge pumping stations. Prior to construction an existing beck was diverted to accommodate the new tanks’ footprint. The project took advantage of off-site manufacturing to precast the concrete wall sections before they were assembled on site to form the new 45m diameter, 8.5m deep (deepest at the central desludge cone) settlement tanks. BarhaleEnpure JV constructed a new chemical dosing plant and installed a UMON4 device to upgrade monitoring to MCERTS (monitoring certification scheme) standards. This confirms that the works is treating permitted flow to full treatment (2,350 litres per second) when the storm overflow is operating. The team also completed process improvements and created a 2.5ha biodiversity and rewilding area. The WwTW, which serves a catchment of 200,000 people, remained fully operational throughout the construction process. Phosphorus is a normal component of domestic sewage, entering the sewer system from products such as shampoos and detergents. It can also enter rivers through agricultural run-off and natural soil erosion, which can be difficult to control. Small amounts of phosphorus are harmless and are essential to many ecosystems, but higher concentrations can become damaging to aquatic life.   BarhaleEnpure JV Contracts Manager Brian Harrold said the joint venture moved into the design and construct phase in the third quarter of 2023 following extensive early contractor involvement. “This has been a relatively long-term project to deliver essential water infrastructure for a large part of West Yorkshire,” he said. “We worked closely with Yorkshire Water throughout and successfully completed and commissioned all the new works on schedule and under budget. “The improvements are already delivering a measurable impact, including better water quality in the River Calder, a healthier and more enjoyable environment for people and wildlife and improved opportunities for recreation.” Philip Lister, Yorkshire Water’s environmental permit compliance lead, said: “Yorkshire Water is committed to looking at innovative ways to improve the operation of our sites to meet our phosphorus removal targets. This particular project adopted a number of measures designed to reduce the carbon impact and speed up the duration of the improvement works. “We have committed over ?350m to reduce the levels of phosphorus going into watercourses at 85 of our wastewater treatment sites across the region in the next five years, continuing the work we began in 2020 – 2025.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Dumfries & Galloway Council has appointed McLaughlin & Harvey to deliver a £38m flood protection scheme at Whitesands, setting in motion long-awaited works to safeguard the riverside quarter from the River Nith. The project follows years of debate over cost and design and responds to a persistent local problem: the Whitesands area has seen regular inundation—205 incidents recorded over the past two centuries—with climate change expected to intensify both frequency and severity. McLaughlin & Harvey has been engaged on an early contractor involvement basis to refine buildability, phasing and community impacts ahead of the main construction programme, which is expected to start next summer. The contractor will work alongside Turner & Townsend and Jacobs, who are providing consultancy support across cost, programme and technical design. The solution combines permanent and demountable elements to balance protection with riverside amenity. New barriers will be installed along a raised walkway on the Nith, using a mix of reinforced walls, high-clarity glass panels and flood gates at key access points. The glass sections are intended to retain river views and daylight while delivering the required defence standard, addressing long-standing concerns that traditional opaque walls would sever the town’s relationship with its waterfront. Flood gates will enable access for pedestrians, vehicles and events in normal conditions, closing rapidly when river levels rise. Invasive ground investigation works were completed in summer 2024, informing the foundation strategy and helping to de-risk construction in a complex urban setting. With utilities and traffic routes threaded tightly through the area, the early contractor involvement phase is expected to focus on sequencing, temporary works and stakeholder engagement to minimise disruption to local businesses, residents and visitors. Beyond protecting property and infrastructure, the scheme is designed to unlock confidence for future investment in the town centre. Reduced flood risk can lower insurance premiums, stabilise trading conditions and encourage upgrade decisions that have previously been deferred. The raised walkway and public-realm elements also create an opportunity to improve accessibility and wayfinding along the river corridor, linking the waterfront more clearly with the town’s retail and heritage assets. Once on site, the programme will likely be paced around river conditions and seasonal constraints, with key activities—including foundation pours, barrier installation and gate commissioning—co-ordinated to avoid peak flood windows where feasible. Commissioning will include integrated testing of gates, drainage interfaces and emergency procedures. For Dumfries, the project represents a pragmatic compromise forged through extensive consultation: robust, adaptable defences that keep the river in view rather than out of mind. As the main works mobilise next year, the focus will be on delivering reliable protection with the least possible disruption—an investment in resilience that aims to pay back through safer streets, steadier trade and renewed confidence on the banks of the Nith. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Barhale, in collaboration with Thames Water, has successfully completed the major upgrade of a vital trunk main at Fortis Green in North London. The £16.8M project strengthens network resilience and protects customer supplies for more than 35,000 properties in North London. It has been delivered under Thames Water’s AMP7 Trunk Main programme, which targets critical assets across the capital where failure could cause severe disruption. Barhale worked closely with Thames Water to replace 2.4 kilometres of aging 24” steel trunk main using a combination of micro-tunnelling and open cut trenching techniques. Extensive collaboration throughout the project lifecycle led to a significant revision to the reference solution, moving the existing pipeline away from the A406 North Circular Road – and roughly 16M annual vehicle movements – to eliminate potential traffic delays and reduce disruption for residents during construction. Mark Taylor, Thames Water’s Director of Delivery from London Infrastructure emphasised the criticality of building resilience into the network. “Population growth and climate change are putting increased pressure on water infrastructure,” he said. “While Fortis Green was primarily a project to address a critical asset reaching the end of its natural life, it also presented an opportunity to upgrade part of the network and strengthen its resilience.” Shane Gorman, Barhale’s Water Director (Southern Region) highlighted the importance of the project’s successful delivery. “Thanks to our extensive modelling and changes to the reference design we have been able to improve the capacity and the dynamic flow performance of the pipeline,” he said. “The re-engineering of the solution also enabled Barhale to achieve a 14.9% reduction in cost over the reference solution and significant carbon savings of 10,800tCO2e. This project is a strong example of how strategic engineering and early collaboration can deliver sustainable, high-value outcomes.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Partnership has already delivered multi million-pound savings through faster customer issue resolution, reduced ODI penalties, and smarter asset lifecycle management Vyntelligence (Vyn®), the market-leading Agentic Video Intelligence platform, today announces a major expansion of its partnership with Northumbrian Water (NWG), one of the UK’s largest holding companies for water supply, sewerage, and wastewater industries. The collaboration will scale across NWG’s North East Network operations, achieving total asset optimisation with video intelligence. This comes at a time when the UK water industry prepares for its most fundamental regulatory period in decades. The AMP8 cycle, supported by Ofwat’s £104bn investment framework, presents the water sector with the challenge to push innovation across environmental standards, water supply security, asset resilience, and customer service, all while maintaining cost efficiency and regulatory compliance. Success in this ambitious period hinges on addressing two key opportunities: people and data. The industry is facing workforce challenges from an aging population and skills shortages, plus fragmented data systems continue to force reactive rather than predictive asset management. Resolving these challenges can unlock millions in operational inefficiencies and optimise existing asset lifecycles. By incorporating Vyntelligence into its workflows, NWG will be positioned to synergise people and data, pushing innovation across the AMP8 period. Vyntelligence replaces complex data interfaces with the most natural one: video. Field teams and customers document issues, asset maintenance needs and conditions through simple “show and tell” videos. These videos are processed using Agentic AI to extract actionable insights, trigger appropriate responses, and track resolution in near real-time. Vyntelligence and NWG will work together to achieve total asset optimisation with a focus on predictive maintenance, enhanced safety protocols, and intelligent resource allocation. Together, they have already demonstrated transformative impact over the last five years, achieving multimillion-pound savings through faster customer issue resolution, reduced ODI penalties, and smarter asset lifecycle management. “Vyntelligence are a valued partner who have helped us to transform the digital capabilities used daily by our field colleagues. Vyn assists our front-line teams to easily capture high-quality information in the field through their intelligent video workflow tool. Vyn’s embedded AI converts these video workflows into insights, and combined with data in our asset management systems, it creates a deeper understanding of our work and assets. Using video to capture to produce insights in this way has enabled field teams more time to focus on delivering the work for our customers, created opportunities for more innovative ways of working, and helped to ensure the safety of our colleagues. We are looking forward to continuing our successful partnership with Vyntelligence into AMP8 and expanding the use of the platform to support our ambitious asset investment programme,” said Martin Jackson, CIO at the Northumbrian Water Group. “Our long-standing partnership with Northumbrian Water is a testament to the transformative impact of Video Intelligence in solving the critical people and data challenges facing the UK water industry. We are proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with innovators like NWG, enabling total asset optimisation, empowering frontline teams to drive smarter decisions, faster fixes, and superior outcomes for AMP8 and beyond,” said Kapil Singhal, CEO at Vyntelligence. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Kier has been awarded a £139 million contract by Severn Trent Water to deliver a substantial upgrade of the Wanlip sewage treatment works in Leicestershire – the third-largest facility of its kind in Severn Trent’s network. The extensive programme is designed to future-proof the site by increasing capacity and resilience while meeting more stringent environmental standards. Once complete, the upgraded facility will be capable of handling a 24% increase in dry weather flow and around 20% more full flow to treatment, addressing the demands of a growing population and improving water quality across the region. This milestone follows an early contractor involvement (ECI) phase, during which Kier completed enabling works and developed the detailed design in close collaboration with Severn Trent. Full-scale construction is now under way and is expected to conclude by 2028. Key elements of the scheme include: James Jesic, Severn Trent’s capital delivery and commercial director, commented: “It’s exceedingly rare for us to award contracts of this size and it really speaks to the scale of these upgrades at Wanlip and our commitment to improving our infrastructure, delivering a reliable high-performing service for our customers, and protecting the environment.” Andy Lingham, managing director of water at Kier Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks, added: “This is a significant project for Severn Trent, and we’re pleased to be bringing our expertise to help deliver it. Our relationship spans more than 20 years, and this is one of many projects we’ll be delivering in this AMP8 cycle. Collaboration will be key to making it a success, with all parties co-located in our new welfare village, working together to ensure safe, efficient, and successful delivery.” The project forms part of Severn Trent’s wider capital investment plan for AMP8 and highlights Kier’s continued role in helping the water company enhance its critical infrastructure across the Midlands. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Now is a time of change for UK’s ‘broken’ water sector Publication of the final report of the independent review into the water sector’s regulatory system in England and Wales has been welcomed by ACE Group.  The Independent Water Commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe, has now concluded its investigation into the provision of water and the quality of our natural water environment.  The review is a direct response to a catalogue of pollution cases, financial difficulties, mismanagement and infrastructure failures within the sector, which combined have shaken the public’s trust.  With firm recommendations on driving resilience, enabling innovation, supporting supply chain capacity, speeding up delivery and the capability of water companies to roll out large infrastructure projects, ACE Group is calling on Government to embed these into law at the earliest opportunity.  Director of Policy at ACE Group, Marie-Claude Hemming, said: “ACE Group has long argued that the UK’s water sector is fundamentally broken, still driven by cycles of boom and bust alongside challenging business models, a lack strategy and pipeline visibility.   “The publication of the Cunliffe review highlights that it really is now time for change. Trust has been broken and we all have a part to play in its restoration.  “This cannot be done in isolation. While we urge the government to implement the recommendations of this independent review as soon as possible, we must all be cognisant of big decisions ahead.  “Primarily, it is no longer possible to continue with the current approach, whereby the industry is deprived of necessary investment – does not drive economic growth and the longer-term environmental outcomes future generations deserve.   “We need honest conversations about cost and the finance models needed to deliver the world class water infrastructure society expects.  “ACE Group urges Government not to shy away from difficult decisions and seize the opportunity to deliver this once in a generation reform to our water sector.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals