Fisher German has won a five-year contract to provide property and surveying services to Southern Water. The contract will see our teams manage Southern Water’s property portfolio, which consists of around 7,000 acres in the south east of England stretching from Kent to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The portfolio is made up of operational sites, reservoirs and rural land. We will not only be managing sites but also assisting with developing a strategy to deliver maximum value from the portfolio, identifying, realising and advising on a range of opportunities to generate income and add value.
The contract is being led by Partner Matthew Trewartha, based at the Ashby office, with regional support from our experts in Canterbury and Hungerford.
We will be advising on matters including sales, lettings, acquisitions, strategic and investment advice, valuation services, building services, planning, business rates, estate management and property management.
The contract was awarded following a four-stage bid process spanning five months and we have already achieved its first success after selling 15 acres of landlocked pasture on behalf of Southern Water for well in excess of what would be considered the market value.
Matthew said: “We are very excited to be given the opportunity to expand the scope of services that we are able to provide to Southern Water. This will enable us to build on our existing relationship where we have been delivering services into their capital project side of the business. They have an excellent in-house team and we will be bringing our experience of working with corporate landowners and within the regulated businesses to support and challenge them across the portfolio.
“Our role will involve advising on and securing opportunities to generate income for Southern Water while ensuring that their core business, being the supply of water and sewerage services, is not interrupted. Areas we will be particularly focusing on include planning, development and disposals associated with their redundant assets as well as lease arrangements and renewables opportunities.
“We are very pleased to have already made our first sale on behalf of Southern Water, and will be striving to identify further revenue streams which align to their core strategy. We now look forward to working in partnership with them to deliver their long-term goals.”
