The latest wave sees 33 firms take spots on its collaborative framework including 11 firms joining for the first time for work across the company’s Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water operating areas.

The contractors will be available to work flexibly across the company’s programme of work including working with its Living Water Enterprise, but will primarily work with its in-house Integrated Delivery Services team, delivering lean and agile short-term schemes.

The IDS team operates an integrated delivery model, combining in-house and partner expertise to deliver the best outcomes on shorter cycle, lower complexity solutions.

Earlier this year, Northumbrian Water announced its largest ever contractual commitment with the appointment of seven new delivery partners, adding to five consultant appointed last year to create its Living Water Enterprise (LWE).

The seven successful bidders were Esh-Stantec, Avove, Farrans Construction, Costain, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), BAM Nuttall and MWH Treatment.

Monisha Gower, assets director at Northumbrian Water Group, said: “AMP8 and beyond represent a huge challenge for us. We are nearly tripling our investment programme and this requires a significant increase in delivery capacity at a time when the rest of the sector, and construction as a whole are also preparing to ramp up activity.

“So, we needed to build capacity when demand for supply chain partners is at an all-time high. That’s why we’ve moved quickly and worked innovatively in our procurement, to make sure we get the right partners on board, with time to prepare for delivery.

“The ecosystem we have built provides a lean and agile delivery community that will play a fundamental role as we scale for AMP8.

“These appointments represent a significant milestone for us. Our delivery ecosystem is now fully populated with supply chain partners and we can begin planning for execution of our AMP8 programme in earnest.

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