Thames Water WRMP29 — Market Engagement Open for Water Resources, Demand Management and Leakage Suppliers

What This Notice Is

On 22 June 2026, Thames Water Utilities Ltd published a UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (reference 2026/S 000-058668) on Find a Tender. This is not a traditional invitation to tender — it is an open call for third parties to submit proposals that could inform and feed directly into Thames Water's Water Resources Management Plan 2029 (WRMP29).

The WRMP29 is the statutory long-term plan that sets out how Thames Water will meet its customers' water needs over the next 25 years. Incorporating third-party solutions — particularly in demand management and leakage — is central to how the company demonstrates it is exploring all available options before committing capital to new supply infrastructure.

The Three Categories Open for Proposals

Proposals may be for any one of these three areas. Consortium and joint venture bids are explicitly permitted, meaning technology companies can partner with delivery contractors or vice versa.

How the Process Works

Thames Water operates under a Bid Assessment Framework (BAF) — a published document setting out how third-party proposals are evaluated according to principles of transparency, equal treatment, non-discrimination and proportionality. Unlike a traditional procurement, the Procurement Act 2023 does not formally apply to water supply options; Thames Water is voluntarily following its principles to ensure maximum market openness.

The process runs as follows:

• Step 1 — Register interest: Contact Thames Water via thameswater.co.uk/about-us/suppliers/procurement and request the initial Preliminary Screening Survey (PSQ1). You must indicate whether you are proposing a water supply solution or a demand management / leakage solution.
• Step 2 — PSQ1 submission: Complete and return the PSQ1. Failure to provide the required information or respond within specified timescales may exclude a bidder from further participation.
• Step 3 — Evaluation under BAF: Proposals are assessed against the published framework. The BAF document is available at thameswater.co.uk/about-us/regulation/water-resources.
• Step 4 — Inclusion in WRMP29: Qualifying solutions are incorporated into the Water Resources Management Plan. Contracts run from 30 June 2027 to 30 June 2032.

Who Should Be Looking at This

This is a genuinely wide-open opportunity. Thames Water is not restricting this to existing framework holders or pre-qualified suppliers — any third party can request a PSQ1. The companies most directly in scope include:

• Water resources specialists — desalination, water reuse, aquifer management, reservoir and storage operators, bulk transfer infrastructure providers
• Demand management technology providers — smart metering, AMI/AMR platforms, water efficiency auditing firms, behavioural demand reduction specialists
• Leakage detection and reduction companies — acoustic logging, pressure management, district metering area (DMA) optimisation, ADSL/AI-driven leak detection
• Network rehabilitation contractors — those with leakage-specific capabilities including pipe lining, patch repair and service pipe replacement
• Consultancies and technology integrators — firms that can package and structure third-party solutions for submission through a BAF-compliant process

Smaller and highly targeted proposals are not excluded. Thames Water has specifically noted that proposals which are clearly beneficial, robust and smaller in volume terms are more likely to be considered for inclusion in the current WRMP29 cycle.

The Supply Area Context

Thames Water is the largest water company in England and Wales by customer numbers, supplying approximately 15 million people across London and the Thames Valley — covering an area of around 5,000 square miles. The combination of population growth, climate pressure on chalk aquifer yields and the company's AMP8 leakage reduction commitments under Ofwat's determinations makes this one of the most strategically significant water resources procurement exercises currently open in the UK.

Thames Water's current WRMP24 (the 2024 iteration of its statutory plan) is already in the public domain and sets out the scale of the supply-demand deficit the company is working to address. WRMP29 will update and extend this view — and the third-party solutions incorporated now will form the building blocks of that programme.

What to Do Next

The first step is simply to register interest and request the PSQ1 — this costs nothing and does not commit you to anything. Thames Water's procurement team can be contacted via the link above or by email at procurement.support.centre@thameswater.co.uk.

Suppliers should read the BAF document carefully before preparing any proposal. The framework sets out exactly how solutions will be scored, which means a well-structured submission aligned to BAF criteria will significantly outperform an unstructured one regardless of technical merit.

Thames Water WRMP29 Water Resources Demand Management Leakage Market Engagement AMP8 London South East

Source: Find a Tender — Notice 2026/S 000-058668, published 22 June 2026. Thames Water Utilities Limited, Clearwater Court, Reading. Information verified against primary source. Updated 26 July 2026.