Thames Water Awards Nine Teams Place on £4bn Major Projects Framework

By Elena Vasquez

Thames Water has picked nine contractor teams for its £4bn Major Projects Framework, one of the biggest pipes of water infrastructure work in Britain. The panel will upgrade water and wastewater systems across London and the South East, where much of the network is ageing and under strain.

That £4bn figure is worth putting in context. Spread across the framework's initial five-year run, it works out to roughly £800m of major capital work a year — and the framework can run longer, which would push the total higher still.

Who made the cut?

The winning line-up mixes familiar UK names with international pairings. Taylor Woodrow has teamed up with US engineering giant Amentum, while Binnies partners Ferrovial Construction alongside Cadagua, its Spanish sister water treatment specialist.

The full list of Major Projects Framework AMP8/9 winners:

• BAM Nuttall
• Barhale
• Costain
• Binnies / Cadagua / Ferrovial Construction
• Murphy
• Amentum / Taylor Woodrow
• Galliford Try
• Kier
• Mott MacDonald Bentley

That's a broad church. It spans heavy civils firms, water specialists and joint ventures, giving Thames Water depth when it parcels out individual schemes.

What will the framework actually deliver?

Projects will range from treatment plant upgrades to new pipelines, pumping stations and associated civil engineering works, as Thames Water tackles its ageing assets. The scope covers the full delivery chain: pre-construction services, engineering and construction.

There's a mechanism worth noting here. Individual jobs won't flow automatically to the nine teams. Each one gets awarded through project-specific contracts and remains subject to approvals. In plain terms, the framework is a qualified shortlist, not a guaranteed order book — firms still have to win each scheme on its own terms.

How long does the panel run?

The contractor panel runs initially until 31 March 2030. Extension options could keep it running until 31 March 2035 — a full decade of potential work from a single procurement exercise.

The timing maps onto the industry's investment cycles. The framework will deliver major capital works during the AMP8 period, with scope to continue into AMP9. Those five-year asset management periods are how Ofwat, the water regulator, structures spending across England and Wales, so the framework's lifespan is built around them rather than arbitrary dates.

For the nine teams, the prize is a decade-long seat at a £4bn table. For Thames Water, it's a ready-made supply chain for the treatment plants, pipelines and pumping stations its ageing network needs — with the first project-specific contracts now the thing to watch.