Defending AMP8 investment decisions: What water companies can learn from the gas industry

Published: 29 October 2026

Water companies are under pressure in AMP8 to show that investments are necessary, affordable, and capable of delivering better outcomes for customers and the environment. With PR29 already on the horizon and so much still uncertain, every pound has to work harder and every decision has to stand up to closer examination than before.

The gas industry has been dealing with questions around asset condition, network risk, assurance, competence, and defensible decision-making for years – and those learnings apply directly to water companies.

It comes down to confidence, meaning that you need to understand your assets, you're investing in the right places, and that risks are properly understood. If a decision is challenged, you need to be able to explain why it was made and show it was the right one based on the information available at the time. When ageing infrastructure is under increasing demand, that is hard to do.

What have we learned from the gas industry?

The main lesson from the gas industry is that when organisations have a clearer understanding of their assets, they are able to make better, data-led decisions. We've seen it first-hand through our asset assurance, inspection and engineering support projects. Investment becomes more targeted, risk becomes easier to manage, and conversations with regulators become more evidence based.

We've spent more than twenty years working alongside utilities in highly regulated environments, helping them understand their assets, strengthen compliance, manage risk, and improve project delivery. That work runs from technical engineering consultancy and inspections through to operational support, training, and management systems, and it transfers to the water sector more readily than you might expect.

As part of the Adler & Allan Group, we can also bring in a wider team with experience in environmental services, infrastructure management, asset intelligence, monitoring, and analytics. That means we can help water companies connect engineering decisions with operational realities and long-term environmental objectives.

No need to start from scratch

None of this removes the uncertainty, and it's probably something we'll be living with for some time. But water companies don't have to work everything out from first principles. Gas networks have been through many of the same questions, and there's a lot each sector can learn from the other.

If there's a route through the challenges ahead, it'll be built on that kind of collaboration between utilities, regulators, and the people who support them. We may not know exactly what the future looks like yet, but we can make sure we're as ready as we possibly can be.