The business of managing a £2.5bn capital programme

United Utilities (UU) provides water and wastewater services to seven million people and businesses in north-west England, and is the UK’s largest listed water business. The group owns and manages the regulated water and wastewater network in the region through its subsidiary United Utilities Water PLC, which is responsible for most of the group’s assets and profit.

For the asset management period 2010 to 2015 (AMP5), UU planned a £2.5bn capital delivery programme to maintain, replace and improve its facilities. To carefully control the programme costs and make strategic decisions, reliable management information data was essential.

Mace undertook a comprehensive management review to identify all information associated with the capital programme, including data and reports, comparing and reviewing them against industry best practice.

Our recommendations resulted in United Utilities making changes to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the management data and systems. The changes put in place consequently improved the consistency and efficiency of the entire programme delivery.

This project profile features in our Northern Powerhouse section.