Networks November: Asset Health in AMP8 & Beyond

9:30am – Arrival

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome and Scene Setting

• Why asset health matters now
• AMP8 pressures, regulatory change and resilience expectations

• The gap between capex-led delivery and the operational reality of maintaining and improving assets

• How could the clean water bill impact asset health?

Speaker:

Paul Horton, CEO, Future Water Association

10:15-10:35 Opening Keynote – The State of Maintenance and Reliability in the UK and Ireland

• Findings from Mainstream’s UK-wide asset health study
• Cross-sector perspective with relevant insight from 6–7 UK water companies
• An independent, data-led view of where the sector stands today

Speaker:

Ian Collier, Head of Content, Mainstream Community

10:35-10:50 Audience Input: Identifying the Challenge Set

• Attendees invited to submit, in up to 10 words, their single biggest asset health concern
• Responses gathered through an online polling tool
• Inputs reviewed during the day and used to shape the closing synthesis
• Objective: identify 6–7 priority challenges to carry forward into February

10:50-11:30 Session 1: The regulatory and standards landscape

• Explore what good asset management looks like across the UK and Ireland.
• Discuss the transition plan, standards gaps
• and the role of consistent sector-wide practice.
• Consider how standards can act as enablers rather than tick-box exercises.

Moderator: Mark Garth, CEO, Affinity Water

Speakers:

Matt Hateley, Director of Engineering and Asset Management, Ofwat

Phil White, Chief Maintenance Officer, United Utilities

11:30-12:00 Session 2: Critical assets: identification, condition and lifecycle

• Examine how critical assets are identified, assessed and prioritised across the network.
• Discuss the data and inspection challenge for understanding condition and lifecycle risk.
• Identify supply-chain opportunities in asset inspection and condition assessment.

Speakers:

Kara Cartwright, Innovation Lead, Canals and Rivers Trust

12.00 – 12.20 Session 3 - How Can Supply Chain Collaboration Improve Asset Health?

• Leveraging supply chain relationships to trial new products and bring innovative solutions to market.
• Working more closely with water utilities and Tier 1 and 2 contractors to expand the range of available solutions.
• Improving compliance monitoring and documentation to support faster, more efficient sign-off for repair and reinforcement works.
• Reducing costs and environmental impact through consolidated deliveries and local stock availability.
• Developing more flexible supply chain models to support asset health, emergency repairs, reinforcement and planned maintenance.

Speaker:

David Coxhead, Director of National Sales, Wolseley

12.20 – 13:15 LUNCH

13:15 – 13:50 Session 4 - Data, asset registers and smart technology

• The relationship between physical assets and usable data
• Asset registers, condition visibility and decision quality
• Why smart sensing alone is not enough
• Data fragmentation, poor linkage and the consequences for maintenance and investment decisions
• Data quality and how to use data to report performance to regulators

Speakers:

James Miller, Data & Digital Transformation Director, Amnut

13:50-14:15 External and cross-sector perspectives

• Perspectives from North America and other sectors
• How leading organisations are approaching asset health, maintenance and long-term resilience
• People, process, policy and technology as an integrated challenge
• Examples of stronger practice that may be relevant to the UK sector

Speaker:

John Fortin, Senior Associate, Hazen and Sawyer

14:15-15:50 – Skills, maintenance culture and practitioner reality

• The practitioner-level barriers to better asset health
• Creating and sustaining a proactive maintenance culture
• Integrating AM and MM
• Skills, accountability, maintenance culture and organisational behaviour
• How to move from macro-level discussion to practical asset improvement

Speakers:

Phil White, Chief Maintenance Officer, United Utilities

15:00 – 15:45 Interactive synthesis: surfacing the six or seven key challenges

• Review of audience polling responses
• Facilitated discussion to test and refine the
• emerging themes
• Agreement on the priority challenges for the sector
• Identification of the people and perspectives that need to be in the room in February

Speaker:

Paul Horton, CEO, Future Water

15:45 – 16:00 Closing Remarks