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upgrades across the country’s water infrastructure. Structured around several core goals, the aim of AMP8 is to bring about: • A 17% reduction in leakage of homes • A tripling of water main replacements How will AMP8 impact the public sector? While much of the AMP8 funding will be allocated to water companies, there’s a not-inconsiderable impact on the public sector. In fact, water infrastructure and the built environment go hand in hand. For instance, when drainage systems
are overburdened, schools and hospitals rates are high, causing damp and mould to thrive, housing providers face mounting repair costs – or penalties if they remain ignored. This can drastically impact health and wellbeing of those that use these services – particularly in more vulnerable communities. As AMP8 well and truly gets underway, we can expect such infrastructure to come under scrutiny, and water companies’ utilisation of these funds may well intersect with publicly owned buildings. That’s why engagement between
local authorities, water utilities, and contractors will be essential to enable a joined-up approach that reduces any downtime and service disruption investment. What will this look like? As it stands, a sizeable portion of public buildings – think schools, hospitals, housing – are connected to legacy water and drainage systems, which were not designed with today’s usage or rainfall levels in mind. As such, they face challenges such as backups and issues. While systems that lie within the
building’s boundary will be up to the building owner to address, lateral drains, public sewers, public water mains, and communication pipes will fall under the water company’s responsibilities, and may well be upgraded to hit AMP8’s targets – especially as £12bn is
plans to triple the rate of water main by more than a quarter. This will likely mean disruption to
roads, access routes, and utilities near public buildings during these upgrades. How can public sector buildings align with AMP8? Where drainage upgrades or water main replacements are scheduled, public bodies can take advantage by coordinating and aligning AMP8 projects with their own planned refurbishments or maintenance cycles. Forward planning in these areas may not only reduce ongoing disruption to the public, but also reduce the need for costly reactive repairs in the future. Additionally, buildings can introduce their own cost-effective improvements to enhance resilience. This can be seen in the form of installing property contribute to safer and more sustainable of simple, cost-effective measures deployed to protect buildings and essential infrastructure, like schools or hospitals, from damage or closure allowing them to be proactive against services.
protect infrastructure, and reduce the environmental impact of heavy rainfall
and overwhelmed systems. Lateral connection saddles also support critical upgrades to stormwater and sewer systems by offering secure, leak-free pipe connections. The ripple effects of AMP8 While the funding will unfortunately not reach the pockets of those estate managers looking after public sector buildings, AMP8 does present a timely opportunity to consider how they can best support with aligning to wider, national goals. This unprecedented investment
in water management indicates the seriousness of the matter at hand. It serves as a wake-up call for the nation, whether that’s the private or public sector, and really gives weight to the importance of installing more resilient measures to better support water infrastructure.
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