How to sell to UK water companies in AMP8

The £104bn total comes from Ofwat's PR24 final determinations, announced on 19 December 2024,[1] and the DPC route for the very largest schemes is set out in Ofwat's major-projects determination.[3]

• Ofwat price controls. Ofwat sets a five-year price control for each regulated company. The PR24 final determinations (December 2024) split the allowances into base expenditure (running and maintaining assets) and enhancement expenditure (new schemes such as storm overflows, nutrient removal, resilience and supply).[1][2]
• CMA redeterminations. Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex were referred to the CMA. The CMA's final determinations were published on 10 March 2026.[4] For those five companies, use the CMA figures, not the original Ofwat ones.
• DPC for very large schemes. Ofwat's approach applies DPC by default to discrete projects above £200m whole-life totex. Those schemes are tendered to third parties rather than built in-house.[3]

Why it matters for a supplier: the per-company final determination documents name the enhancement programmes, such as phosphorus removal, overflows, metering and resilience. Those programmes become equipment demand: pumps, valves, screens, dosing, instrumentation, SCADA and sludge treatment.

Use the free water and wastewater buyer-route worksheet to log one row per route per company.

1. Ofwat and CMA determinations. Read the company-specific final determination. List the enhancement lines that match your product category.[2][4]
2. Find a Tender. Search for each water company by name and for your CPV codes (see our CPV code guide). Framework award notices reveal which contractors won which lots.[6]
3. Supplier pre-qualification. Many UK utilities use Achilles UVDB to pre-qualify suppliers. Registration makes you visible to subscribing buyers but does not guarantee work.[5]
4. Water company supplier pages. Each company publishes its own supplier requirements, policies and contacts. Read them before you approach anyone.
5. Contractor websites and annual reports. Find the contractor's water business unit and the project or framework teams it describes publicly.

A tender notice tells you about one contract. An account view tells you who will buy for five years. For each water company, record:

• the enhancement themes relevant to you (from the determination);
• the framework contractors on the lots you'd supply into;
• the roles to research: category manager, framework manager, process engineer, operations lead;
• any trigger events: a framework award, a DPC milestone, a published enforcement or environmental commitment.

Fictional example: A fictional UK maker of chemical dosing skids reads one company's final determination and finds a large phosphorus-removal programme. Find a Tender shows that the company's capital framework went to two fictional contractor joint ventures. The supplier registers on the contractors' supply-chain portals, pre-qualifies through UVDB, and targets the contractors' process design leads, not the water company's general procurement inbox. This example is fictional and only illustrates the method.

• Treating Scotland and Northern Ireland as part of the Ofwat regime. Scottish Water and NI Water need separate research.
• Quoting a single headline AMP8 number for every company. Allowances differ by company, and five were redetermined by the CMA.[4]
• Contacting the water company only. On framework-delivered schemes, the contractor's design and procurement teams often specify the equipment.

Demand Range does company-level account research for industrial suppliers, covering water companies and framework contractors, with the public evidence behind each row. Named contacts and outreach are separate scopes, not included by default. For the Irish market, see our Irish water investment supplier research guide.

Request a written scopeSee how account research works

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1. Ofwat, Ofwat approves £104bn upgrade…, PR24 final determinations press release, December 2024
2. Ofwat, PR24 final determinations hub
3. Ofwat, PR24 final determinations: Major projects development and delivery (DPC threshold £200m whole-life totex)
4. Competition and Markets Authority, PR24 redeterminations: final determinations summary, 10 March 2026
5. Achilles, UVDB supplier pre-qualification for UK utilities
6. UK Government, Find a Tender service