Major Water Infrastructure Programme guidance

In March 2026 we published an Overview of the combined gated process which sets out the overarching framework and principles for the combined gated process, which projects within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme will go through. It is used by the regulating bodies to oversee, support and assess the delivery of the projects by companies.

It includes an overview of the whole project life cycle, and how it relates to other processes, such as Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs), planning and development costs.

Gate A Guidance

Major Water Infrastructure Programme: Optioneering & Pipeline Management and Gate A

The purpose of the guidance is to describe the Optioneering & Pipeline Management stage and gate A assessment process. It replaces the Strategic regional water resource solutions guidance for gate one Version 2 and combines the requirements for stage 1 of the direct procurement for customers (DPC) process.

Cost Assessment spreadsheet – Gate A​ – includes the expenditure of AMP split template and the efficiency of expenditure template, that should be completed by project owners and submitted alongside their gate submissions.

Further guidance is in development and will be published for Gates B – E. This includes:

• Midpoint review​
• Initial development stage and Gate B​
• Development and Commercial stage and Gate C​
• Procurement stage and Gate D ​
• Construction and commissioning stage and Gate E (to be published later in 2026)​

Currently, we are undertaking work to update the DPC guidance and issue guidance for SIPR. The latest version of all guidance will be captured on this website, with all recent and upcoming publications listed in the table below.

Major Water Infrastructure Programme – Initial development midpoint review

This guidance explains the midpoint review within the Initial Development stage of the Major Water Infrastructure Programme. The review takes place between gate A and gate B and provides structured feedback to help projects stay on track and prepare for gate B. It replaces the Strategic regional water resource solutions guidance for gate two within the combined gated process.

Gate B Guidance

Major Water Infrastructure Programme – Gate B

The purpose of the guidance is to describe the Initial Development and gate B assessment process. It replaces the Strategic regional water resource solutions guidance for gate three (version 4) and combines the requirements for stage 2 of the Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC) process.

Gate C Guidance

Major Water Infrastructure Programme – Gate C

The purpose of this guidance is to describe the detailed development stage and Gate C assessment process for schemes within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme.

It replaces the previous Gate four guidance on strategic regional water resource solutions and brings together the requirements for stage 3 of the Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC) process, where applicable.

Gate D Guidance

Major Projects Programme – Procurement and Gate D

This guidance sets out the details of the Procurement stage and  gate D assessment process. Gate D represents the decision point at which Ofwat determines whether to grant consent for the Appointee to enter into contractual arrangements with the selected competitively appointed provider (CAP) under Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC), or to proceed with the appointment of an Infrastructure Provider (IP) under the Specified Infrastructure Projects Regulations (SIPR).

Commercial guidance & supporting documents

In addition, we have issued guidance and supporting documents to support the commercial development of projects. This includes the following: