Portsmouth taps into UK Infrastructure Bank finance as part of Havant Thicket package

Portsmouth Water has secured a £50m commitment from the new government-owned UK Infrastructure Bank to support construction of its Havant Thicket reservoir, the first investment of its kind for the sector.

The funding was part of a £325m investment package announced by Portsmouth last week. Other lenders included ING, Lloyds Bank, Nat West, abrdn, Assured Guaranty, Pension Insurance Corporation and Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank.

This is in addition to the equity commitment of £150m from existing Portsmouth shareholders, Ancala Partners, announced last month.

Separately, Portsmouth has appointed Binnies to provide the construction engineer and geotechnical specialist for Havant Thicket. Dominic Molyneux is an all reservoirs panel engineer and will have overall responsibility for the design and construction of the reservoir. He will oversee the design-build team through all stages of the project.

Binnies’ geotechnical specialist, Mark Wheeler, will review the design and construction of the embankment. He is a technical director with over 40 years’ engineering geology and geotechnical experience, mainly on heavy civil engineering works.