By Kieran Byrne, Architect & Engineering Manager at Axis Communications
Ofwat’s eighth asset management period (AMP8) signals a dramatic shift in investment for the UK’s water industry. Water companies are set to spend £104 billion over the next five years, a far higher figure than previous cycles, and security has been pulled into the spotlight: Ofwat has earmarked £1.2 billion of the budget to security-related expenditure[1].
This investment in security is timely. Critical national infrastructure faces increasing risk, with 95% of CNI organisations suffering a data breach between 2024 and 2025[2] and attacks now targeting both physical sites and digital systems. AMP8 isn’t just a funding boost – it’s an opportunity for water companies to tackle long-standing vulnerabilities and design future-proof protection.
Rethinking the perimeter
One of the water industry’s biggest gaps is perimeter security. Water facilities are often remote, under-monitored, and vulnerable, with some featuring aging fencing that could lead to trespassing. Staff report an increase in confrontation at such isolated facilities, including verbal and physical abuse from the public[3].
Ofwat’s ambition is clear by its numbers: physical protection has been allocated three-fifths of AMP8’s total security budget. That includes spending on surveillance systems, thermal and radar technologies, and smart features like intelligent object classification to improve the quality of evidence detection and the speed of response.
But as with any surveillance operation, technology alone isn’t enough. Effective installations depend on thoughtful system design, adequate coverage, and resilient hardware able to deliver over the long upgrade cycles that AMP schedules tend to dictate.
Intelligent vision and operations
Usefully, given the isolation of some sites, modern cameras require a lower level of additional infrastructure and bandwidth. They can make automated, informed decisions without the need for a separate server. Their accuracy is important: it lowers false alarms and reduces pressure on the overall security function.
Any alert should be immediate and actionable, but AMP8’s ambitions go further. Water companies are being pushed towards data-driven decision-making, a function for which the camera can play a vital secondary role. Edge-based analytics on-board the camera can assist with flood detection, asset monitoring, and environmental data collection, as well as providing a catalyst for predictive maintenance programmes.
In this sense, a security investment becomes an engine of continuous operational insight. AMP8’s spending boost, while earmarked for security, offers an opportunity to reimagine and revitalise ‘behind-the-curve’ operating procedures.
Where physical and cyber risks converge
All of this comes under an umbrella of increasing risk. The water industry is well used to dealing with climate shock, but resilience is about more than that. Water is critical infrastructure – a popular target for hackers looking to disrupt, disable or steal important data. Nation states now join opportunistic hackers in threatening to breach the cyber perimeter.
AMP8 offers an opportunity to embark upon a converged security path, one which treats physical and cyber defence as equals within a single, integrated strategy. Water companies necessarily lean on IoT devices for many functions, and these can offer convenient entry points for hackers.
Investing in systems which provide regular upgrades, ongoing vendor support, and an unshakable commitment to cyber hygiene is vital; as important, in fact, as video quality or smart functionality in any camera system.
Buying for a decade, not a budget
AMP8’s investment is so vital because budgets of this scale do not come around often. Within this funding period, it may be the most significant opportunity to make a real step change in security investment. When approaching budget allocations, the need to maximise resources is clear. Experience often shows that what looks attractive as a lower upfront cost may in time become a long term burden, which is the last outcome anyone wants when equipment must perform at critical moments.
Procurement stakeholders must approach the AMP8 funding with care, focusing not only on upfront costs but on long term value and on security systems built to last the decade. Upfront costs typically account for just 30 percent of a surveillance system’s total cost. True value lies in long term performance and total cost of ownership should be the primary procurement metric.
This highlights the importance of choosing equipment that is energy efficient and considerate of bandwidth and storage, while also ensuring that hardware can weather the harsh conditions often experienced in these environments with minimal spend on servicing and maintenance. Above all, the technology chosen must be flexible and intelligent enough to remain fully fit for purpose across the next decade and beyond. An investment in security is a long term commitment to a hardware and software ecosystem and to the company that stands behind it. The priority should always be quality rather than a quick saving.
A catalyst for modernisation
AMP8 isn’t just another funding cycle. It’s a moment of modernisation, in which the UK’s water infrastructure can strengthen its resilience and build innovative infrastructure capable of carrying it into the future. Approached strategically, a security investment enables safer, more efficient sites that meet the modern demands of this critical sector, while also strengthening regulatory compliance.
Treat security not as a checkbox but as a strategic asset. AMP8’s security spend offers an opportunity to build systems which protect against today’s threats and enable the agile, sustainable, and data-driven water infrastructure that the industry needs.
[1] https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PR24-final-determinations-Expenditure-allowances-V2.pdf
[2] https://www.bridewell.com/insights/news/detail/95--of-uk-cni-organisations-suffered-a-data-breach-in-the-last-year
[3] https://www.britsafe.org/safety-management/2024/water-workers-abused-and-assaulted-as-public-anger-about-sewage-leaks-rises-gmb
