Balfour Beatty’s vision for a sustainable Water industry
05 August 2019
Balfour Beatty today publishes its latest policy paper, “Two sides of a coin: A strong and sustainable supply chain and efficient charges for utility customers”.
The paper outlines the company’s view on the current balance of risk and return in the Water sector and the impact this may have on increasing the costs for consumers over the long-term. Through a reduced focus on investment in innovation and skills, and an unstable supply chain, sector productivity may be affected.
In order to address this, the water industry’s supply chain must have a visible and reliable pipeline of future projects to enable investment in innovation and skills. This will ultimately be reflected in reduced utility bills for the public and ensure the future-proofing of the industry.
Balfour Beatty outlines 10 key points, notably; creating contracts that share risk and reward more fairly between client and supplier; exploring means to address the stop-start nature of contracting, which consequently leads to the loss of skilled staff; and encouraging effective collaboration amongst companies working within the water sector.
Mark Bullock, Chief Executive Officer for Balfour Beatty Rail and Utilities business, said: “An efficient, innovative water sector is reliant on a resilient supply chain. The supply chain must be empowered and able to embrace technological developments. They must work with the wider industry to retain the much-needed talent required to sustain the industry.
“It is essential that water industry clients and supply chain customers work together to guarantee this long-term approach that effectively delivers reasonable and stable utility costs for consumers for years to come.”
To read the paper in full, click here.
ENDS
Media enquiries to:
Megan Wood
Balfour Beatty
+44 (0)207 963 2150
megan.wood@balfourbeatty.com
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All non-media related enquiries should be directed to +44 (0)20 7216 6800 or info@balfourbeatty.com
Notes to editors:
- Balfour Beatty (balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 26,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
- Our main geographies are the UK, US and Hong Kong. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
- Balfour Beatty’s Gas & Water teams work in the UK and Ireland, providing expertise and experience to support a stable and safe supply of these vital services.
- Our in-house teams offer technical knowledge and in-depth industry experience. We provide exceptional customer service and innovative approaches to minimise disruption to residents, businesses and the environment.
- Our water operations cover the whole lifecycle of networks. This includes clean and waste water mains, metering and treatment facilities. Working closely with our supply chain, we employ industry-leading approaches like BIM and offsite construction to ensure cost and time efficiencies.
- In the gas sector, we work to expand and renew underground mains, often in busy and high-impact residential and commercial areas. We work closely with customers to manage and plan work intelligently in these areas, minimising the impact this essential work has on local communities.
- Our current portfolio includes the Anglian Water @one alliance which will deliver more than half of Anglian Water’s capital investment programme worth approximately £1.2billion between April 2015 and March 2020; the Thames Water eight20 alliance, with Skanska and MWH Treatment, will carry out 1.75 billion of capital investment works on behalf of Thames Water; The Thames Tideway Tunnel in which Balfour Beatty is working in a three-way equal joint venture alongside Morgan Sindall and BAM Nuttall to deliver £416 million, six kilometre ‘West’ section of the over 25km Thames Tideway Tunnel.