WET News

2 WET NEWS MARCH 2015 COMMENT "Great progress has been made to remove the boom and bust aspect..." MARCH 140 The number of oil-• eld wells in California that could be closed by October having been allowed to inject into federally protected drinking water aquifers. California is in the midst of a severe drought. Ian Cheung is the new head of Morgan Sindall's construction business across the South and West of the UK. He has joined the company from Kier, where he was managing director of its central business unit. Cheung has replaced Tony Dixon. Galliford Try has reported an 18% rise in turnover and an 18% increase in pre-tax pro• t for the half-year to December 31, 2014. 18% 18% IN A NUTSHELL "Brazilian scientists have developed a way to use #wastewater from the orange juice industry to generate #power." @GE_Water £220K How much Thames Water was • ned by Guildford Crown Court for a polluting o— ence in September 2012. The o— ence included polluting the River Blackwater with partially treated sewage. £440M The transition money that the water companies could have spent in the last year of AMP5 "The procurement process has been extremely competitive and we received many high quality proposals." Simon Reed, Coal Authority chief exec, on awarding multimillion-pound deals to Severn Trent Services and JN Bentley to protect the environment from polluted water. "...and believe his extensive experience of growing companies in the water sector make him well-placed to take the business forward." Estelle Brachliano- , Veolia executive vice-president - UK & Ireland, on John Abraham becoming head of the group's UK water business. £4bn Thames Water and the partners that make up infrastructure alliance eight2O have o™ cially signed their contracts. eight2O will handle up to £4bn of capital investment at Thames Water. T here's less than a month to go to the arrival of AMP6. Woohoo! I don't know about you but it seems to have taken an age to get here. The last year of an AMP cycle has traditionally brought doom and gloom with work having tailed o• as the water companies prepare their business plans for the the next regulatory cycle. This time around there has been a marked improvement as a result of the work carried out by the Cyclicality Working Group, whose aim has been to try and smooth the transition from one € ve-year regulatory cycle to the next. Thanks to the group's work, the industry has seen water companies put their AMP6 strategies in place – and for the two following AMP cycles in some cases – a lot earlier than in previous AMPs Then there was the £440M transition investment that could be brought forward into AMP5. This is the money that regulator Ofwat said the water companies could spend in advance of AMP6 but didn't. Great progress has been made to remove the boom and bust aspect of the AMP cycles but there is a feeling that the main bene€ ciaries have, until now, been consultants and Tier1 contractors. We can only hope that because of the early contract involvement work will lead to the rest of the industry's supply chain bene€ tting from AMP6 work a lot sooner than it would have in previous cycles. Now AMP6 is here, don't let the momentum of the Cyclical- ity Working Group stall. There is still a lot of work to be done if the negative impact of the regulatory AMP cycle is to be banished once and for all. Balfour Beatty seeks a transformation It's a new year, a new boss is in place, and a new strategy has been announced in the shape of its 'Build to Last' programme (see front page). This is the path that Balfour Beatty has now embarked upon having experienced a trying time, what with the takeover saga with Carillion; the sale of Parsons Brinckerho• ; and the conclusion of KPMG's inde- pendent review into the CSUK contract portfolio. And don't forget the six pro€ t warnings in two years. The Build to last programme, which has been welcomed by city analysts, focuses on four key areas – Lean, Expert, Trusted and Safe. These are the criteria that new chief executive Leo Quinn will ensure each of Balfour Beatty's business units meet to reach industry-standard performance levels. The aim iin the longer term, says Quinn, s to shape a group with leadership in key markets, driving best-in-class perfor- mance from a platform of strong capability, leaner processes and robust execution. "The group's recent trading makes it imperative to gain early momentum in our transformation plans." Let's hope the tide has turned for the group. Tel: 01902 490919 Fax: 01902 452256 Tel: 01902 451733 Fax: 01902 452256 Email: marketing@steelway.co.uk www.steelway.co.uk SECURITY PRODUCTS l KIOSKS l CAGES l BAR SETS & GRILLES l ACCESS COVERS l DOORS l FENCING l GATES ACCESS METALWORK l STAIRCASES l HANDRAILS l FLOORING l LADDERS steelway_water SECURITY 126x176 to use_Layout 1 17/07/2012 14:53 Page 1 • Safety Critical Access Metalwork • Access Covers & Frames, • LPCB Certifi ed Steel Security Products • Fencing & Gates Steelway are a leading company in the fi eld of engineering excellence and fabrication. For more than 85 years we have designed, manufactured and installed safety critical access metalwork. Steelway provide a complete service, with 3D design, state of the art manufacturing facilities, highly skilled and experienced installations personnel overseen by our expert project management team. Steelway are CE certifi ed up to Execution Class 3. B ristol Water is seeking a review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) having rejected Ofwat's € nal determination for the next € ve years. The utility is the only one out of 18 water companies in Eng- land and Wales not to accept the determination. Ofwat has told Bristol Water that it must reduce annual aver- age household bills (excluding inž ation) from £197 to £162 in the € rst year, followed by four years with bills held at £152. Equating to a 23% price fall, this was the toughest drop imposed on any of the UK's water compa- nies in the PR14 process. The determination was in marked contrast to Bristol Wa- ter's 2015-20 business plan, which had proposed a price re- duction of only 4.5%, to an aver- age annual bill of £188. The business plan had proposed to- tal wholesale expenditure for § Water company seeks CMA review over customer bills, with second Cheddar reservoir being a key factor in its spending plans. Bristol Water only water company to reject O at's nal determination the company of £541M, com- pared to the Ofwat determina- tion of £409M. One major item of di• erence was Bristol's proposed spending on the construction of a second reservoir at Cheddar, which was not approved by Ofwat. Bristol Water chief executive Luis Garcia said: "The € nal de- termination makes it very di© - cult for us to maintain our levels of service and make su© cient investment to deliver the en- hancements needed to improve and protect the water supply that our customers told us they wanted, for now and in the fu- ture. "Throughout this process we have engaged fully with Ofwat and we have consulted with our customers to ensure that their views and priorities have shaped our Business Plan. We are very con€ dent that our pro- posals for 2015-2020, combining service improvements and price reductions, meet our customers' requirements and expectations. "We do not believe that the determination Ofwat has set is in the long term interest of our customers and stakeholders and we believe that a review by the CMA will result in a better out- come. "There is clearly a discrep- ancy in calculations because of the size of the gap and the CMA is the only fair way to resolve this," he added. Ofwat said it will refer Bristol Water's € nal determination to the CMA "in due course". The CMA will now appoint a panel of members to adjudicate this case. Bristol Water will then sub- mit a statement of case to the panel which will be reviewed along with responses from Of- wat as well as statements from industry and regulatory stake- holders; the process is expected to last six months.

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