Five contractors will form the water company’s Integrated Maintenance and Repair alliance, one of four alliances that Anglian Water has now established.

The IMR alliance is divided into two specialist areas, covering water and water recycling projects. Partners will be encouraged to contribute ideas and experience across both areas of work.

Clancy Docwra and Kier MG have signed contracts to carry out the firm’s water infrastructure maintenance work.

This will include carrying out around 40,000 jobs a year such as repairing burst mains, finding and fixing leaks and replacing lead pipes.

The contract is expected to be worth around £140m between 2015 and 2020.

Anglian Water has also announced the four preferred bidders for its water recycling maintenance work, which includes fixing collapsed sewers and replacing damaged manholes.

This section of work is expected to be worth over £60m in the same period.

The four bidders – Clancy Docwra, Claret Civil Engineering, Danaher & Walsh and Public Sewer Services – will spend the next three months working on a joint business plan before signing contracts to form the final part of the IMR alliance, completing around 7,500 water recycling jobs every year.

Jason Tucker, Head of Capital Delivery and Supply Chain Management for Anglian Water, said: “Confirming our partners and preferred bidders for the final two alliances brings our tier one AMP6 procurement process near to its conclusion.”

“This announcement is the final step in confirming all of our tier one framework partners who will work with us to deliver between £6 and £9bn of investment over 15 years.

“Four alliances will collectively deliver every kind of work for Anglian Water, ranging from building large new water treatment works to repairing small leaks and connecting new properties to the network.

“The supply chain contracts begin next year and are expected to run until 2030, with a review every five years. We now look forward to running additional procurement processes to appoint our many tier two partners to service our four alliances.”

All the partners will work with Anglian Water in a collaborative commercial model, sharing risk and reward collectively within the alliance, working to outperform Anglian Water’s business plan.

To maximise collaborative working and efficiency, contracts may run for 15 years, with a review after each five-year AMP period.

This is one of the longest collaborations in the industry, and means these contracts could deliver around £600m of investment over 15 years.

Already this year, the company has confirmed its partners for its Integrated Main Works Capital which will retain the ‘@one Alliance’ brand, Integrated Metering and Developer Services  and Integrated Operational Solutions  alliances, representing almost £2bn of the company’s investment programme during AMP6.