Anglian Water is today signing the first in a series of four partnership contracts with firms which will deliver up to £9billion of investment in the region over the next 15 years.

Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Grontmij, MMB (a joint venture of Mott MacDonald and JN Bentley), MWH and Skanska are the first partners to be confirmed.

They will deliver around half of the total investment programme under Anglian Water’s business plan for 2015 to 2030. which is expected to be worth between £6bn and £9bn. Black and Veatch has also signed as a reserve partner.

This group of companies make up the first of four alliances to be announced by the water company this year which will together deliver work ranging from building large new water treatment works to repairing small leaks and connecting new properties to the mains network.

The contracts, which are expected to support upwards of 10,000 jobs across the region, including many skilled roles, will be subject to review every five years.

Planned expenditure includes £44million to protect homes from the risk of flooding, £192m to improve and extend the sewerage netowrk, £117m on new water treatment works and pipelines, £225m on maintaining existing water pipes and treatment works, and £71m on connecting hundreds more homes to the mains sewerage network for the first time.

The first work stream, which will be worth up to £1.3bn over five years, will focus on complex projects such constructing and upgrading water recycling centres and large-scale flood prevention schemes.

The partners signing up to the supply chain contracts have committed to supporting 10 key “outcomes” identified in Anglian Water’s new business plan, which was the subject of its largest ever customer consultation involving around 50,000 people.

As a result, the new partners will only recover head office costs and earn a profit when they outperform the business plan objectives, which include customer satisfaction and carbon footprint reduction targets.

Chris Newsome, asset management director at Anglian Water, said: “These partnerships are formed on the principles of making our business as efficient as it can be, and ensuring our customers are completely satisfied with what we do for them.

“Our progressive approach to these partnerships is also fundamental to our ability to keep bills below inflation for the six years through to 2020.

“We’re committed to investing to combat the challenges our region faces, dealing with a changing climate and a growing population. These investments also support economic recovery and regional growth, delivered in a sustainable way that will benefit the whole of the region Anglian Water serves.

“We’ve selected partners who share our vision and are committed to the same financial, environmental and business outcomes as we are.

“Over 90% of our customers supported our plan for the next five years, and these partnerships are one of the ways we’ll turn that plan into action,” he added.