WET News

2 WET NEWS NOVEMBER 015 COMMENT "It seems ironic that the industry's regulator has added to the problem" NOVEMBER 5 The number of student researchers who together will provide 15 years' worth of research on a range of wastewater treatment and resource recovery projects. Atkins will provide support. Dr Krisztina Bordacs has become lead sustainability consultant for MWH in the UK. She will deliver a range of services including environmental risk appraisal, carbon and water-footprinting of infrastructure solutions for UK water companies and other clients. Anglian Water Business has been conŽ rmed as the victor to provide water and wastewater services to 100-plus public service organisations in Scotland. The long-awaited deal, worth £80M a year, is expected to realise savings of up to £40M over the next four years. The existing contract with Business Stream was due to expire on March 21, but will continue until December 31. £80M 100 £23M VolkerStevin is the latest company to win a contract on the Tideway sewer project. Its £23M deal covers enabling works in advance of construction work starting at the sewer. £2.4K How much we raised for WaterAid by taking part in its tortuous Tough Sh!t fundraiser "...we will deliver a system that will make competition work for the [English] water industry" Tara McGeehan, vice- president, Energy & Utilities, GCI in the UK, on being selected by MOSL to build and support the sector's central marketing operating system. "The JV is a hugely exciting collaboration between two complementary organisations." Ian Miller, of MWH Treatment, commenting on the creation of the MBV Energy Recovery joint venture with Black & Veatch. £4M UU has proposed a £4M tunnelling project to bypass a sewer that was damaged when a sinkhole opened up on Manchester's Mancunian Way in August. The bypass work is needed because ground conditions are too unstable. W ith the arrival of AMP6 there was optimism that the transition from Amp5 would be a lot smoother. A er all, water companies had put early start programmes in place, and Ofwat had allowed hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to be brought forward. Come April 1, 2015 everyone could hit the ground running. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for some it has as the industry's supply chain complain that project delays by some water companies has resulted in a sluggish start to AMP6 (see front page and p7). It would seem that Ofwat has thrown a spanner in the works by not only calling on the water companies to focus on customers and introduce a totex approach to capital investment, but adding Outcome Delivery Incentives into the mix. Ofwat worked with the industry, through the Cyclical- ity Working Group, to help try and eradicate the negative impact of the ‹ ve-yearly regulatory cycles. It seems ironic that by adding new measures, the regulator has added to the problem. F or some in the industry's supply chain, where there was optimism there is now a feeling of resignation as once again the 'boom and bust' aspect of the AMP looms large. Five years is a long time, so there's no reason why the transition to AMP7 shouldn't be a smooth one – if everyone works together. Get those entries in Being innovative and forward thinking is a matter of course these days. The water compa- nies require contractors and suppliers to come up with the best technologies that are out there. However, it should not just be about technologies. There needs to be forward thinking in other areas as well – health and safety, training, customer service, partnerships. For instance, some companies think that putting up 'Sorry for the inconvenience' signs at streetworks is innovative. Really? Innovation is about the use of a better and novel idea. Doing something di˜ erent, rather than the same thing. So if your company is forward thinking and innova- tive, tell us about it and enter the Water Industry Achieve- ment Awards (see front page). Best of luck! WaterAid's Tough Sh!t Last month, I mentioned that the WET News team was joining forces with colleagues from Utility Week and Water & Wastewater Treatment to tackle WaterAid's Tough Sh!t 10k muddy fundraiser on October 24. Well, we did it! It was great fun, and le some of us (er, me) more battered and bruised than most. But most impor- tantly, though, we raised more than £2,490 for WaterAid. A big 'thank you' to everyone who sponsored us. Multimillion-pound windfalls put water companies under spotlight' ¤ National Audit O› ce criticises Ofwat price control regime for allowing companies to retain windfalls. W ater company ‹ nances have come under the national spotlight again a er the National Audit O¥ ce (NAO) slammed Ofwat's price control regime for allow- ing companies to retain multi- million-pound windfalls. The NAO claimed water companies pocketed £815M between 2010 and 2015 as a result of the low interest rate environment and cuts to corpo- ration tax. It acknowledged Ofwat's e˜ orts to encourage companies to share gains with customers over the period, with an addi- tional £435M being returned to bill payers over that ‹ ve-year period, but said more needs to be done in PR19. Between 2010 and 2015, water companies gained around £410M from lower than expected tax rates and £840M from lower than expected inter- est rates. NAO comptroller and audi- tor general Amyas Morse said the customers have "not seen enough of the bene‹ ts" from the ‹ nancial gains and that Ofwat's "price cap regime is not yet achieving the value for money that it should". Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Meg Hillier also slammed the regulator for fail- ing to force companies to pass on the ‹ nancial bene‹ ts and said: "More work is clearly needed to ensure customers share in savings made by water companies." The regulator defended its record and said it has responded to concerns over companies' pro‹ ts in its recent price review PR14, with ‹ nancial reward and penalties being linked to perfor- mance, and with the "the low- est ever cost of capital in a regu- lated sector". Ofwat's chief executive, Cathryn Ross, was "surprised" the National Audit O¥ ce said the regulator does not deliver value for money, and added there is evidence of "strong delivery". She added Ofwat's price reviews "shielded customers from increased ‹ nancial risk, which could have led to signi‹ - cant bill increases had rates increased" and that this is a "risk we did not think [custom- ers] should bear". Performance guaranteed…a cut above the rest. 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