A CONTRACT to repair the south’s ageing water network potentially worth tens of millions of pounds has been won by a Hampshire building firm.

The water industry arm of the Totton-based Trant group, which directly employs 550 people locally, teamed up with construction firm Barhale under the operational name BTU to successfully bid for the work from Southern Water.

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Already, both are providers of infrastructure services to the UK water industry. The joint venture takes its title from the initials of the two partners and the word ‘utilities’.

BTU, which will be based at Havant, near Portsmouth, will carry out mechanical and electrical improvements at Southern Water assets across Hampshire and West Sussex, such as treatment works and pumping stations, from now until 2020.

It’s part of £2.2 billion plans to maintain and improve services to its four million customers from 2010 to 2015 which will create 6,000 jobs.

Trant chairman Patrick Trant, pictured, said: “It is testament to BTU’s collective expertise, acquired through Barhale and Trant’s extensive water industry experience, that the client selected us above other competitors.

“This contract is great news and it provides an opportunity to establish BTU as one of the UK’s leading water infrastructure specialists.

“Our respective staffs have worked incredibly hard over the best part of a year to make this contract a reality – our goal now is to deliver first-class results to the client.”

Southern Water’s chief executive, Les Dawson, said: “It is essential that the suppliers we engage not only deliver a service which is of the highest standard but also share Southern Water’s ethos of having customers at the heart of its business.”

Southern Water supplies drinking water to one million households and treats wastewater from nearly two million across the south.