IN Brief:
- Southern Water has awarded a £72 million minor civils framework to four South East SMEs for planned and reactive works across water and wastewater operations.
- The scope covers roads, drainage, fencing, chambers, pipework, ducting, and tank works, focused on repairs, replacements, and alterations rather than major capital schemes.
- The agreement is expected to run from March 2026 to March 2030, with extension potential to 2034, alongside Southern Water’s wider AMP8 investment programme.
Southern Water has awarded four contractors places on a £72 million minor civils framework covering planned and reactive work across its water and wastewater operations, giving the utility a delivery route for smaller repair and alteration packages through the opening years of AMP8.
The framework covers three main categories of work across Southern Water’s regions: roads, access, footpaths, drainage, and fencing repairs; buildings, chambers, cabling, pipework, and ducting; and tank works. The procurement notice positions the requirement as lower-complexity activity rather than major capital investment, focused on repairs, replacements, and alterations to existing assets and infrastructure.
Places on the agreement have gone to AAA Building and Civil Engineers, C J Thorne & Co, D R Clark Services, and G & L Environmental. All four are listed as SMEs, with bases in Kent, Sussex, or the wider South East, giving the framework a strongly regional supply-chain profile at a point when utilities are under pressure to turn AMP8 allocations into deliverable site work.
The award sits within a broader Southern Water investment cycle. The company says it is investing around £8.5 billion between 2025 and 2030 as part of its latest business plan, while earlier capital delivery framework awards covered strategic delivery partners for major infrastructure and lower-complexity design-and-build work. The minor civils package is a different tier of procurement, but it is the kind of contract that underpins day-to-day asset resilience across access routes, chambers, drainage runs, and small structural interventions.
The award decision was taken on 9 February 2026. The contract is expected to run from 13 March 2026 to 12 March 2030, with an option to extend to 12 March 2034, giving Southern Water a longer maintenance window across the first half of the current regulatory period.
