Network Plus is at the forefront of building resilience across the UK’s water, power, and gas networks
Working in partnership with the leading utility companies across the industry, Network Plus delivers critical services, covering water and wastewater, power and gas. With more than 6500 employees, over 20 years of experience, and 94 depots across the nation, Network Plus is trusted to provide both clients and their customers with specialist capabilities when and where they need it most.
“Established in 2000, Network Plus is a UK-based utility infrastructure provider that’s on a fast-paced growth trajectory,” opens Kevin Fowlie, CEO, who joins us to elaborate on the company’s evolution. “The company was originally known as Gallagher’s but in 2017, there was a rebrand and we became Network Plus. We were later acquired by OMERS in 2022, which has turbocharged our growth and put the business on track to double in size by the end of 2027. Today, we have a workforce of over 6500 people, who maintain and enhance utility and infrastructure assets across water, power, gas, and infrastructure, from planned network renewal projects to emergency response activities.”
This successful period of growth has been aided by significant investment in people, processes, and systems to create an industry-leading target operating model. Kevin comments: “We have invested heavily in our internal talent, and our ongoing growth has created new opportunities for progression, enabling us to create a leadership team that will support the next period of significant growth.”
Robust relationships
Network Plus has also recognised the importance of strengthening operational delivery and performance reporting through targeted investment in new IT solutions, including TotalMobile, Microsoft Fabric and Dynamics. Kevin states: “Having the right controls in place is essential when we are growing at such a pace and we are already seeing the benefit of this investment. We’re using innovative technologies and systems to help us plan work more effectively, increase the speed of our response, and identify patterns of work that needs to be done. Technology is also helping from a back-office perspective. We’re using a plant optimisation tool, for instance, instead of manually reviewing assets, through the use of AI to analyse data and optimise scheduling. We’re also using technology to monitor and reward good driver behaviour, as well as to enhance our customer experience by communicating task progress and scheduling.”
Network Plus plays a pivotal role in supporting its clients to provide reliable water infrastructure services and achieve their regulatory performance commitments, whilst delivering an excellent customer experience. Across its water clients, the company completes more than 200,000 planned and reactive maintenance jobs every year, whilst providing a comprehensive 24/7/365 emergency service. “We specialise in high-volume, low complexity work to increase network resilience and security of supply, and we have extensive experience across our chosen sectors,” Kevin elaborates. “Our customers often call on us during emergencies, which range from restoring water supplies to preventing environmental impact on our wastewater contracts. A recent example was a request to support United Utilities after a major canal collapsed in Shropshire in December. We’ve worked with United Utilities for many years and their trust in Network Plus has led to further contract successes that will take our partnership beyond 2030.”
The company has continued to increase its geographical footprint and client relationships, following the recent expansion into Wales, where it has been appointed as the sole partner to deliver clean water repair and maintenance activities across Wales and Herefordshire on behalf of Welsh Water.
Positive lasting legacy
The recent acquisition of Claret Civil Engineering, a Suffolk-based specialist in wastewater and utility infrastructure, further reinforces its wastewater capability. Commenting on the acquisition, Kevin says: “This was a strategic acquisition for the business and provides an excellent springboard to increase our wastewater activities in addition to opening up new clients and geographies, with the expansion into the East of England.”
Network Plus also plays a significant role in smart metering, installing an average of more than 390,000 metres per year in a wide variety of properties. The company has recently renewed several metering frameworks including a new framework with Severn Trent, making Network Plus one of the largest smart metering installers in the UK. Another key activity for Network Plus is developer services for clean water, installing new mains and services. Indeed, the business completes over 60,000 developer services jobs each year.
The company is currently focused on increasing its role in delivering network enhancement activities to meet upcoming AMP8 demand. Network Plus is part of a joint venture (JV), with Envolve, which has recently been awarded Strategic Delivery Partner for South West Water’s £3 billion AMP8 Delivery Framework. Kevin elaborates: “Amplify is South West Water’s delivery alliance, formed to undertake the company’s investment programme for AMP8. Our collective role is to turn South West Water’s long-term investment plans into reality by reducing storm overflows, and improving water quality and resilience. We will also be focused on creating a positive lasting legacy through local job creation, and strengthening the local economy by supporting the local supply chain.”
Turning to power, Network Plus is one of the UK’s leaders in delivering power infrastructure services for the Distribution Network Operators (DNOs). Operating nationwide, the team offers a full turnkey service on minor works, emergency faults, maintenance, asset replacement, customer connections, storm response, major diversion, and reinforcement projects. Network Plus also provides overhead line wood pole and steel tower works, delivering full LV modernisation, ESQCR compliance, circuit rebuild, refurbishment, dismantlement, and new build. Complementing this activity is its Environmental Solutions Plus business, which provides a team of qualified arborists to deliver vegetation management services for DNOs, thereby helping to maintain safe, reliable, and resilient electricity networks. These teams undertake planned and reactive vegetation clearance to manage network risk, reduce outages, and support regulatory compliance while minimising environmental impact.
Network Plus also has a strong track record in providing gas distribution and metering services for low, medium, intermediate, and high-pressure assets. In terms of gas distribution, the company is responsible for the programme management and delivery of 700 kilometres of mains replacement and 70 kilometres of service replacements annually.
The company also provides a range of complementary services that support the business internally on existing frameworks, but also operate as standalone solutions, including traffic management, fencing, and vegetation management solutions. Despite its extensive range of services, Kevin is keen to highlight that the business is not slowing down in terms of adding new capabilities to its portfolio. “In September 2024, we acquired a company called Littlewood Fencing (Littlewood), which is a leading player in asset protection solutions for the utilities, highways, defence, health, education, industrial, and commercial sectors,” he shares. “There is increasing focus on the protection of critical national infrastructure as set out within the Security and Emergency Measures Directive, so this acquisition enables us to offer turnkey protection solutions to both new and existing customers.”
Community commitment
Aiming to leave a sustainable legacy for each project, Network Plus is committed to ESG, with a sustainability framework built around four key pillars: taking care of the environment, helping communities thrive, being a great place to work, and being a responsible business. “We’re passionate about giving back to the communities in which we work, whether it’s sending our employees on community days or supporting local good causes close to our projects,” Kevin confirms. “We recently upgraded some park equipment, for instance, which was near one of our major projects, as a thank you for patience shown during any disruption and to contribute to the local area. It’s important that we take our social responsibility very seriously, not only because it’s the right thing to do but it is becoming more important to the communities we serve, our clients and our workforce.
“From an environmental perspective, much of what we do contributes to the UK’s Net Zero and decarbonisation agendas,” he adds. “In the event of water leaks, for instance, our rapid response teams strive to control the leak and preserve as much water as possible. Our wastewater teams are working with our clients to prevent storm overflows and sewage ending up in our watercourses, and our utilities work is enhancing electrical capabilities and supporting electrification efforts across the UK. We’ve seen increased regulation and protocols around some of our work, such as new legislation that requires us to separate hazardous and non-hazardous waste during our street works operations. We’ve had to adapt our activities to this change, and it has transformed the ways in which we record and capture data.”
Growth trajectory
From speaking with Kevin, it’s clear that Network Plus is a trusted partner to the UK’s leading utility providers. With more than two decades of experience, a growing national footprint, and an ever-evolving portfolio of capabilities, the company will continue to scale operations while remaining agile to meet customer demands. Looking ahead, Kevin shares his predictions for what the future holds.
“2026 will bring further growth for the business, especially as many of the contracts we won in late 2025 continue to ramp up, and we’re delighted with the progress made over the past months on our water mains renewal project with United Utilities which will continue to grow through the rest of the year,” Kevin concludes. “We’re in the process of tendering several opportunities, and we’re exploring further acquisitions and investments to strengthen our capabilities and geographic presence. We’ll continue to deploy more technology across the business and better understand how AI can improve our operations, as well as ensuring we attract the right people that can support our growth journey. We’re already on track to reach £750 million in revenue this financial year, but we’re passionate about running the business as effectively and efficiently as possible while delivering for our clients and their customers.”