WET News

2 WET NEWS JANUARY 2015 COMMENT "There should be no excuse for the companies not to be spending the £440M" NEWS+ JANUARY 10 The number of apprentice- ship standards created by Balfour Beatty and approved through the government's Trailblazer scheme. The standards will be launched by September 2015. "...I can speak out about what I want to see changed so it is not people like me – white, British, middle-aged men – who continue to dominate this working environment." Andy Mitchell, Thames Tideway Tunnel CEO Wessex Water reported a 4.6% rise in pro' ts to £83.8M for the six months to September 2014, while turnover was up 2.8% to £270.6M. 2.8% 4.6% IN A NUTSHELL "Good strategy from @CostainGroup for replacing a faulty valve @stwater pump station..." #valves #goodpractice @DurapipeUK £2.3bn The government will spend £2.3bn over the next six years on more than 1,400 flood and coastal erosion projects, including the Thames Estuary (£196M) and Humber Estuary (£80M). £3bn The further spending that Ofwat, working with the water companies, has taken out of AMP6 "It's a win-win solution to a significant environmental problem. We're putting contaminated water in and taking out valuable metals, clean water, and producing fuel" Dr Chris Chuck, Bath University "It's important that health and safety issues are kept front and centre in all work that we carry out, and this is equally important to employees based on site or in the o£ ce" Richard Hofton, operations director, Imtech Water, Waste & Energy, following its 'Stand Down' day £300K Thames Water's ' ne by Southwark Crown Court following the death of a worker on April 30, 2010. Raymond Holmes was killed by a reversing excavator at a treatment works in Walthamstow. F inally, Ofwat has an- nounced its nal determinations for the water companies in England and Wales, and it's nice to see that around £44bn will be spent over the next ve years on capital delivery programmes. Hopefully, this will mean that projects earmarked for AMP6 can now progress, meaning that the lower tiers in the supply chain may see this work a lot sooner than experienced in previous AMP cycles. There certainly should not be any excuse now for the water companies not to be spending the £440M transition invest- ment. Those companies that I mentioned this transition investment to in recent months all said they were waiting for the nal determinations, which surely defeated the whole point of this investment. There are already murmur- ings among contractors and suppliers that all the e‡ orts to smooth the transition from AMP5 to 6 have yet to be met with action from the regulator and the water companies. Some are annoyed that the only bene ciaries so far are the design consultants. So, water companies – spend, spend, spend. The industry's supply chain depends on it. Saving for savings sake So Ofwat, with the water companies' help has managed to achieve a further a saving of £3bn from the AMP6 pot. Now, £3bn may not seem a lot in the £44bn grand scheme of things for AMP6 but it depends on what plans have been shelved or costs have been slashed to achieve that saving. As a water customer I am all for getting a good deal but I do appreciate that investment is needed to overhaul an ageing water and wastewater infra- structure and am not averse to paying that little bit extra. However, I am not for paying extra if it's going to bolster shareholder dividends, and I hope Ofwat is set on getting transparency in that depart- ment. A great idea, sort of I'm not fond of trade unions but I have to admit the GMB's call for a national dimension in water resource management is a good one. Essentially, the union wants the water industry to be nationalised because it will help bring this national dimension back. The water sector does need a national aspect to it. Let's face it the water companies are providing a national service, albeit at a regional level. Their challenges and issues are all the same, just dealt with at their regional and individual level. The water companies are not known for their collaborative nature with each other and this is likely to get worse when retail competition for non-domestic customers come into e‡ ect in 2o17. I disagree with nationalising the companies but certain areas should be dealt with at a national level – water scarcity tops the list. Call 01527 833383 for advice and support Low Energy Ventilation & Odour Control Efficient, Effective, Innovative Solutions Air Technology Systems Ltd 8 Aston Court, Bromsgrove Enterprise Park Bromsgrove, B60 3AL Tel: 01527 833383 www.atsclimate.com water industry specialists APPROVED CONTRACTOR T he water industry is again running the risk of dam- aging 'boom and bust' if words are not matched with ac- tion on smoothing workloads across the ve-year AMP6 cycle, civils, drainage and utilities ma- terials distributor Keyline has warned. The company is urging the industry to have "a broad- based, open conversation about this". According to Keyline, there is little evidence that calls to smooth the release of work- loads across AMP6 have been met with little evidence of action on the part of Ofwat and some of the water companies. It said that while several framework agreements have been announced between water companies and supply chains, these do not go far enough to ensure that the wildly š uctuat- ing market experience in AMP5 is not repeated. Keyline national sector man- ager for utilities Gareth Twohey said: "A ve-year framework agreement is all very well, but it œ Keyline slams AMP6 frameworks as not going far enough to prevent the negative impact of the cyclical capital investment periods. Action needed to smooth AMP cycle 'boom and bust' still doesn't allow for long-term planning. We would rather see Ofwat extending the regulatory periods to every ten years. The authorities in charge of the UK's water are talking a good game in terms of releasing the work- loads, but we're not seeing any sign of action. "The sector needs to come together to have a broad-based, open conversation about this, before the mistakes of previous AMP cycles are repeated. Boom and bust is also having an impact across the wider con- struction industry, pushing product prices up in times of high demand. This is not sustainable, and construction is under enough pressure on price without Ofwat adding to the problems." Twohey added that the regu- lator is pushing for a 20% reduction in costs across the sector in AMP6, and one of the best ways to cut costs is smooth the supply of work to a steady š ow. "However, there is a per- ceived lack of any real progress." "The sector needs to come together to have a broad-based, open conversation about this" Gareth Twohey, Keyline REALITY CHECK The ' ve-yearly cycles have created peaks and troughs of workload in the industry The regulated periods have resulted in up to 40,000 job losses The AMP cycles have created uncertainty and ine£ ciency for contractors The transition period was to enable water companies to bring AMP6 investment forward More than £40B will be spent on water and wastewater infrastructure in AMP6

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