Havant Thicket Reservoir

The Havant Thicket reservoir, which is being financed and delivered by Portsmouth Water, has harnessed the full flexibility of the water sector’s well established regulatory structure to set the pathway for the delivery of the UK’s first major reservoir in decades. The foundations of the project rest on several innovative adaptations to standard regulatory and commercial concepts used in the water industry, culminating in the development of a new regulatory delivery model.

This delivery model has enabled the development of a project which unlocks significant environmental, as well as socioeconomic, benefits for the south-east region of England. In its narrower function relating to the scale of water supply, the reservoir will have a capacity of 8700 million litres and will support an initial supply commitment of 21 million litres of water per day. This supply will help to serve an estimated 160,000 Southern Water customers per-year.

Agilia has been providing client-side commercial, project delivery and consultancy support to Portsmouth Water to develop the £130m project since 2018. Some details of the work that we have done are set out below:

Infrastructure Strategy: we supported Portsmouth Water to develop its business case to take the project through design, development and planning, as a commercially viable project that could be progressed to delivery.

An innovative model for unprecedented water trading: We have developed the commercial strategy and an innovative commercial model for the water trading agreement, and we have provided negotiation support throughout this process.

Corporate Governance and Management Systems: we have designed the governance framework, project management framework for the entire project, including financial controls.

Commercial and Procurement Strategy and implementation: We developed and are executing a strategy that embodies our client’s values, delivers the best value for money for customers whilst maximising the potential for social and environmental benefits.  The strategy has been moulded to reflect the changing supply chain market given Covid and Brexit and contains several innovations to attract and maintain competition as well as to support the continued focus on delivery to time and cost.

Sustainability: working with the future in mind

Havant Thicket Reservoir is an environmentally led scheme, playing a vital role in reducing abstraction from internationally protected chalk streams and in securing resilient and sustainable water supplies into the future.

The project provides a fantastic opportunity to enhance the local community and environment and with Portsmouth Water we are committed to leaving behind a legacy that we and the local community will be proud of.

We have worked closely with the local community to develop a new green recreational hub on site, including a visitor centre, accessible facilities, education activities and a 5km network of paths for walkers, cyclists, and horse-riders. The project has great potential to improve the physical and mental health of the local communities by providing a new and unique green space.

The project will have an overall biodiversity net gain, restoring a significant amount of woodland and woodland pasture. It will also enhance 5.5km of watercourses in the local area.

It is important that there is a commitment to provide a legacy throughout the supply chain, so tenderers will be evaluated during the procurement process based on their contribution to providing a strong social and environmental legacy to the local area. To further ensure a legacy for the future a capital grant scheme will be provided to help get local environmental projects off the ground.

The project will support the local economy by involving small and local businesses in the supply chain. The construction phase will create jobs – including apprenticeships - in the local community, and once the reservoir is built there will be a small number of local jobs and volunteering and educational opportunities.