Defence Needs A Human Approach
10 Aug, 2026
Huge Investment. Huge Talent Risk.
Ofwat has approved £104bn of investment in England and Wales's water infrastructure between 2025 and 2030. That's AMP8, the biggest investment cycle this sector has ever seen.
That's the good news, but money doesn't lay pipe, dig trenches, or commission a treatment works. People do. And right now, the industry doesn't have enough of them.
The gap.
AMP8 covers everything from new reservoirs to mains replacement, but a budget only becomes infrastructure if there are skilled hands to build it: Ground Workers, Plant Operatives, Pipelayers and Electricians.
Energy & Utility Skills, the sector's recognised skills body, puts the need at over 30,000 new entrants by 2030, rising to around 44,000 once retirements are included.
Demand is rising faster than supply, and the workforce is ageing out faster than new people are coming in. There's more money going into water right now than at any point in my career, and not enough people to spend it on.
Why it matters.
Un-resourced projects don't get delivered on time, and that's not a five-year-out risk; it's a live one.
It shows up as deferred maintenance, supply pressure during heatwaves, and rising bills as scarce labour gets more expensive. Construction firms feel it hardest: labour shortages threaten their ability to deliver what they've already been awarded.
Why I care.
This is personal, not just professional. I rely on the same water infrastructure everyone else does. When client after client raises the same resourcing concern, it stops being a coincidence and starts being the problem worth solving.
What actually moves the needle.
Cross-sector attraction. Highway Operatives, Civil Drainage Teams and Commercial Electricians from other sectors already have the fundamentals. Bringing them into water means sitting down with clients directly to map where those transfers work.
Apprenticeships. Building a pipeline from the start, not just competing for the same shrinking pool of experienced hires.
Straight advice. Decades of combined sector experience, used to give hiring managers an honest, impartial read, not a sales pitch.
Connecting the supply chain. Putting tier-one clients in touch with the subcontractors we already support, so the whole chain is resourced, not just the top of it.
The bottom line.
We're all feeling the pressure of finding skilled people to deliver the biggest investment this industry has ever seen. That's exactly why it's worth acting now, not waiting for it to bite harder.
If you're resourcing AMP8 delivery, lets connect!
We all want the same outcome. If we work together, we will all get what we need.
