The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 187

Guests: Richard Lee, Anglian Water’s @One Alliance Director of Engineering

Anglian's @One Alliance @21

In this episode we look in detail at the how the water sector is continuing to evolve and extract more and more value – and public benefit from every customer’s bill.

My guest today is Richard Lee, Anglian Water’s @One Alliance Director of Engineering. 

And he’s a great person to talk to because when it was launched 21 years ago, the @One Alliance was considered something of a radical procurement gamble by Anglian Water as the vast water company sought to do things differently across its huge regional network of pipes, tanks, pumps and treatment works. 

Designed to dismantle the adversarial nature of traditional contracting, it bound rival engineering giants, among them Balfour Beatty, Skanska, and Mott MacDonald Bentley, into a shared commercial fate. 

Two decades and £4 billion in capital investment later, that experiment has in many ways redefined how the water sector builds, delivering record carbon cuts and structural efficiencies across the East of England.

Now, as the Alliance marks its 21th anniversary, the challenges keep coming.

Under Ofwat’s AMP8 regulatory framework for 2025–30, the Alliance is charged with executing a staggering £3 billion slice of Anglian’s total £11 billion pound five year business plan. 

That means more than 750 schemes, ranging from massive storm overflow upgrades, to pioneering nature-based wetlands. In short, the Alliance must effectively double its output and boost outcomes for local communities.

And it must do so in full view of a skeptical public, under relentless regulatory pressure over river health, and amidst severe supply chain inflation, skilled labour shortages and of course a changing climate.

So how does it intend to evolve; how can the Alliance balance speed of delivery with lower costs, whole-life sustainability, and greater resilience while all the time making the case to politicians for its continued existence? 

The Infrastructure Podcast

All episodes