Regulator Ofwat is allowing the major water companies to bring forward planned spending from AMP6 into 2014 to smooth industry work flows and protect jobs.

The extent of the extra spend has just been revealed following talks between the water firms and Ofwat.

Many more water companies than expected have decided to finance the cost of accelerating works, recognising the efficiencies that will arise as a result of doing so.

Up to 40,000 water industry workers are estimated to lose their jobs every five years as water spending dries up when the major companies switch from one AMP spending period to another.

It creates a damaging hiatus and previously civil engineering contractors have complained it can take a year or more for work to come back on stream.

The idea of special transition arrangements was first floated by a cross-industry group that worked with Ofwat and HM Treasury to tackle the causes of cyclicality in the water sector.

The group’s chairman Richard Coackley said: “The boom-and-bust in investment and employment that occurs every five years in the water sector cannot be efficient.

“We are extremely pleased that Ofwat agreed to introduce the transition investment programme, and we are overwhelmed by the level to which it has been taken up.

“This will support the continued employment of workers across the industry that might otherwise be lost as we close out the current price review period.

“It will also ensure that the industry is able to get off to a flying start in 2015, building upon work that we have been able to bring forward through this programme”.