It seems there’s both excitement in the air at the scale of the task, but also trepidation: genuine concern over whether the sheer volume of work that’s on the cards in the current five-year cycle can be completed.

Take water mains replacement work. A lot of this will be what David Coxhead, sales director for Fusion Utilities, part of Wolseley’s infrastructure division, calls a “Coronation Street scenario”.

He elaborates on the point. “Contractors are often in a high street in London or another heavily populated area, which means traffic and inconvenience. Getting materials in and out of city centres can be really challenging and there are penalties if you overrun road closure notices.” Then factor in that water companies often dig up the ground unsure of what the excavation will unearth, he says.

“What they think is underground may be different from what is actually there. I heard of an example a few years ago where a company dug down in London and revealed a section of wooden pipe had given way. We definitely don’t stock wooden pipe.”

It’s fair to say Fusion Utilities stocks everything else, though. The company has recently established a 150,000 square foot facility in Chesterfield, which also features three acres of yard space. “In terms of distribution for utilities there’s nothing like it in the UK.

“One of the main drivers was to ensure that we could provide the most robust supply chain possible to all of the utilities industries, but water predominantly, because of the unprecedented growth that is forecast for AMP8.”

Matthew Parker, managing director for Wolseley’s infrastructure division, adds: “At a macro level, the big challenge is the sheer amount of work that is going to be undertaken in a relatively short time horizon. That puts strain on resourcing, supplying materials, project management capability; capacity in every facet of the business is going to be strained in one form or another.

“This is one of a number of headwinds utilities are facing as they try and navigate their way through AMP8.”

Another potential blocker is availability of machinery. Fusion Utilities hires out specialist equipment and tooling for water mains replacement. Here too there are constraints. Coxhead says: “Right now all our large diameter machines are on hire. We have more equipment on order to help us cope with demand.”

In this AMP, water utilities may find themselves penalised financially if works are not completed on time, so availability of equipment is crucial. And when it comes to materials, variety is unlikely to prove the spice of life. “The varied nature of what they are going to encounter and dealing with it in the most time-effective, cost-effective and carbon-effective manner makes it a really challenging logistical map,” points out Parker.

To top it all, the water industry must do all of this on top of the day job. Tasked with a huge amount of infrastructure renewal and building of additional sewage treatment works and storage tanks, they will still have to deal with a burst main that’s shutting down a city centre.

Parker says: “As a supplier and value chain partner, we’re asking how we can add value and make the challenge as easy as possible.”