A UTILITY consortium which includes United Utilities has won a £225m contract to construct a wastewater treatment works for Southern Water.

Warrington-based United Utilities and construction firm Costain each have a 40% share in the 4D consortium, while wastewater engineers MWH control 20%.

The deal – to manage the design and build of a new wastewater treatment works in the Brighton and Hove area – builds on an existing relationship with Southern Water.

A five-year contract between 4D and Southern Water was agreed in 2005 and worth £750m, covering more than 250 water and wastewater schemes, and has since been extended to 2015.

Southern Water provides water to more than 1m households and treats wastewater from nearly 2m households across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The consortium has managed and delivered a variety of schemes, including a multi-million pound programme to protect properties from sewer flooding, laying new pipelines under the Solent, laying mains drainage to areas without public sewers and making improvements to wastewater treatment works to upgrade the quality of water released into rivers and the sea.

Philip Green, chief executive of United Utilities, said: “This new contract consolidates our position as the leading utility infrastructure outsourcing company in the UK, delivering further growth through applying our core skills on an asset-light basis.”

The construction phase is expected to take approximately three years, followed by the potential for a two-year contract to operate and maintain the new plant.

United Utilities reported “robust” trading figures for the year to March 31 recently, showing an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to £530m. This was achieved despite revenues only increasing 3%, to £2.43bn, which masked a fall in water usage by business customers.

Non-regulated income, from contracts like managing infrastructure for other utilities firms, added £919m to United Utilities’ income.