Southern Water has named a consortium comprising United Utilities, Costain and Montgomery Watson Harza as its preferred bidder, to help deliver the major part of its GBP1.5 billion water quality and environmental improvement program.
United, based in Warrington, Cheshire and active in the supply of water services mainly in the north west of the UK, will team with its collaborators in a consortium known as 4Delivery.
If successful in its bid, the consortium would be responsible for delivering more than 250 water and wastewater improvement schemes, which form part of Southern Water’s five-year capital investment program.
4Delivery would be responsible for project managing, designing and delivering the new schemes and improvements to water and wastewater assets across parts of Hampshire, West and East Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight.
The consortium is working exclusively with Southern Water towards a contract award at the end of March with operations commencing beginning of April 2005.
The agreement between Southern Water and the United led consortium comes hot on the heels of an announcement by the water regulator Ofwat to sanction the increase of water bills over the next five years, to pay for across the board improvements to the water system of the UK.
Water companies will be allowed to increase their prices by an average of 18% up to 2010, in order to allow them to pay for the kinds of improvements Southern Water is looking to commission 4Delivery to carry out.