Collaboration between water companies and their supply chain is moving in the right direction, according to the latest Water & Wastewater Company Performance Survey published today by British Water, the voice of the UK water and wastewater supply chain.

The annual survey gives supply chain companies the chance to provide feedback on how water and wastewater companies have performed over the past 12 months.

The survey calls for feedback from organisations and individuals across the supply chain about their work with UK water companies, addresses key aspects of the water company-supplier relationship, including attitude, innovation, collaboration, procurement, AMP8 transition, and more. Responses are gathered from British Water members and non-members.

British Water ask contractors, consultants and suppliers to rate their clients’ performance in 12 areas, including innovation, professionalism, contractual approach and communication.

2026 findings show that ‘industry-wide collaboration’ is improving

This year’s findings show that ‘industry-wide collaboration’ is improving, reaching an average score of 7.0 out of 10. Over half of the 12 water companies in the report increased their scores, including significant improvements from Southern Water (up from 5.9 to 6.8), United Utilities (6.9 to 7.7), Scottish Water (8.0 to 8.6), Northern Ireland Water (6.6 to 7.0), and Thames Water (7.0 to 7.4).

The overall score for innovation, which has always been the lowest scoring area in the past, improved this year, increasing from 6.3 to 6.4. Every industry-average measure within innovation either improved or stayed the same, including ‘appetite for innovation’, ‘willingness to collaborate on innovation R&D and testing’, ‘feedback on innovation and progress’, and ‘overall speed of adoption’.

Lila Thompson, CEO at British Water, commented:

“This year’s survey results show marked improvements at a time when water companies and its supply chain are being asked to deliver at an unprecedented scale. It is encouraging to see improvements around collaboration as well as visibility of opportunities, all of which are important foundations for a successful AMP8 delivery. This demonstrates the step up in engagement that water companies have had with British Water, its members and the wider sector to foster closer working relationships for the benefit of the environment and customers.

“The focus now needs to be on turning this positive direction of travel into a consistent experience across the supply chain – giving suppliers early and continuous visibility of future opportunities, engaging with them meaningfully. There is still work to do however to create quicker routes to test and adopt innovation. We see SPRING as playing a key role in this and hope to see wider scale cross-working to speed up the deployment of innovation. These factors will all help build the capacity and capability to continue delivering AMP8 and beyond.”

Additional Water & Wastewater Company Performance Survey highlights:

• Scottish Water retains its number one position overall in the table this year, scoring highest for both collaboration and innovation.
• United Utilities moves up from joint third to second place overall, with increases in attitude, professional qualities and collaboration, while Anglian Water retains third place, continuing to score strongly across areas including following policy, professional qualities and sustainability.
• Southern Water is the biggest improver among all 12 water companies, moving from an overall score of 5.9 to 6.7 and from 11th to 7th position. Key areas of improvements include collaboration, innovation, communication, professional qualities, and supply-chain impact.
• Two other scores highlight progress in pipeline visibility to supply chain readiness for AMP8:
• ‘Visibility of opportunities’ rose from 5.8 to 6.2, one of the biggest increases across all the individual measures with Southern Water (4.7 to 6.3), United Utilities (5.7 to 7.1), South West Water (4.5 to 5.8), and Thames Water (5.7 to 6.4) all improving their scores.
• The score for ‘future plans’ also increased from 6.5 to 6.7, with nine of the 12 improving.

Water & Wastewater Company Performance Survey methodology

British Water’s survey collects confidential feedback from individuals working across the supply chain about their experience of working with UK water and wastewater companies. Respondents are asked to rate, out of 10, only those companies they have worked with across the following 12 key areas:

• Contract Approach
• Attitude
• Professional Qualities
• Impact on Supply Chain
• Innovation
• Procurement
• Policy
• Communication
• Partners/Main Contractors
• AMP8 transition
• Working Digitally
• Sustainability

The results are then used to calculate an average score for each water company, alongside an industry average for each measure and survey area.

Click here to download the results