Utility to appoint legal adviser to £1m contract to support resilience project

United Utilities Water is to appoint a legal adviser to a £1m contract to support and advise its Manchester and Pennines Resilience project through to financial close out.

The scheme is intended to tackle United Utilities’ largest and most significant water service resilience risk, which is associated with a potential failure of a major strategic aqueduct.

The utilities company said it was “committed to evaluating the project using the green book for project appraisal, the appointed LA may be required to lead or support in the preparation of the OBC and the FBC as required as the project progresses.

“Additionally, as a public utility and regulated business, the DPC [Direct Procurement for Customers] procurement process will need to comply with all applicable procurement regulations.”

The legal adviser must therefore be familiar with and have experience of advising on projects that have used and been evaluated in accordance with the green book, and be experienced in assisting its clients with preparation of the OBC and FBC, the company said.

United Utilities said the project would have a relatively long lead time until anticipated financial close, which is the summer of 2022.

The company said the anticipated award date of the legal adviser contract was December 2019 “therefore the initial contract term from award of the LA will be circa 2.5 years, the duration of the agreement may facilitate additional support beyond this for up to a maximum of 8 years”.