Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme

United Kingdom

The Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP) reached financial close in August 2025, becoming the water sector’s first privately financed Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC) project. The £3bn programme renews critical sections of the aqueduct, securing drinking water for more than 2.5 million people across Northwest England.

United Utilities led a three year procurement to select their preferred bidder on the best commercial and technical offering. The winning STRABAG EQUITIX consortium, joined by GLIL Infrastructure, will be responsible for design, build, finance, and maintenance under a long term DBFM contract. HARP incorporates a target cost regime with pain/gain sharing to allocate risk and incentivise performance, for example in geotechnical uncertainty in deep tunnelling. Payments flow via a monthly unitary charge underpinned by Ofwat’s Allowed Revenue Direction, a regulatory innovation, guaranteeing revenue certainty and customer protection. HARP raised over £3bn in funding from a multitude of senior lenders : long term institutional investor tranches alongside flexible commercial bank debt. This structure provided the certainty, resilience and flexibility needed to meet contracted obligations and UU and Ofwat’s objectives of lowest cost to customers. HARP involved navigating complex risk allocation, securing lender confidence, and balancing investor returns with customer protections is unmatched, demonstrating the strength of the partnership with the private sector. It will sustain 1,200+ jobs, support supply chains, and establish long term skills through apprenticeships and training partnerships. HARP is now a global reference point for competitive procurement in regulated utilities, proving private capital can deliver essential infrastructure with transparency & efficiency.